IBM, Philips Secure Smart Card Agreement

Electronic News, Feb 15, 1999

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- Philips Semiconductors Inc. and IBM Research have signed an agreement to jointly develop a new generation of high- security, multi-function smart cards.

The companies will develop cards that offering a higher level of security for banking, electronic purse, medical records, secure authentication and customer loyalty programs as well as other areas where smart cards are used for obtaining personal or money transactions.

The cards will be based on Philips' SmartXA processor and will incorporate a secure operating system as well as JavaCard virtual machine software that is being developed by IBM. Currently, both companies are undergoing third-party certification for the operating system and JavaCard software on the SmartXA hardware platform. This will provide assurance that applications and information from multiple vendors are securely separate from one another.

With the smart cards from Philips/IBM, "companies will be able to issue a single card that supports applications from multiple sources, knowing that an independent third party has assured that valuable information remains totally separate and secure from other companies offering services on the card," said Scott McGregor, senior vice president and general manager of Philips' Emerging Business unit, based here.

In addition, this will allow consumers to have the knowledge that their card is able to perform multiple functions without having their personal information, finances and medical information compromised by thieves.

The Philips/IBM smart card platform is said to be the first time that multiple smart card applications can be written in different programming languages and then loaded onto the same card. The new cards will support applications written in native assembler language, interpreted languages such as Java and high level languages such as C compiled to native binary code.

"We chose the SmartXA processor because it is the only available smart card IC that offers high level hardware security through separate user and system modes, and a memory management unit providing hardware memory protection," said Elaine Palmer, manager of the software group for IBM.

Under the agreement, IBM will define and publish the system interfaces and will implement this operating system and the JavaCard virtual machine for the 16-bit SmartXA processor. This will build on the partnership that IBM and Gemplus Inc. formed last year to provide Java- enabled smart cards.