No. 4, November/December 2009
Technology Highlight
CEA Leti, Gemalto and Raisonance Win Top Smart Card Industry Award
10 Mbps contactless protocol research project wins SESAME for "Hardware" category
In a very exciting development at Cartes 2009, the Very High Data Rate (VHDR) protocol and technology received this years SESAME award in the "Hardware" category. In demonstrations VHDR already achieves data rates nearly 10 times faster than current contactless card technology. This new technology has the added advantages of cost adapted for use in smart cards and backward compatibility with current ISO 14443 technology.
VHDR was demonstrated on the stands of project partners - Raisonance, Gemalto and CEA Leti - where visitors were able to see working implantations in a prototype smart card and a mobile appliance. Many were astounded by the rapid transfer of high resolution medical images (X-rays, MRI scans) that downloaded from a contactless smart card with total transfer times ranging from a fraction of a second to up to 3 seconds depending on file size. The STM32 Primer2 was also used to demonstrate implementation in a mobile appliance to simulate the possibilities for easy download of media such as MP3 files. The new technology holds great promise for a range of applications ranging from data rich identity information on e-passports to diagnostic images on health care cards.
The technology was presented by the project members, which include research team from the CEA Leti - a French research institute, Gemlato for implementation and integration and Raisonance for tool integration. Raisonance contributes on the development of tools for VHDR test and certification to include signal emulation, signal capture and protocol analysis.
Product Highlights - Cartes'09
ContactLAB Grabs Spotlight for SWP Emulation
ContactLAB continues to attract new users who are eyeing the NFC market, as well as smart card producers and integrators specializing in traditional ISO 7816 contact card interface.
Thanks to its integration of the HDLC block for test of the Single Wire Protocol in the contactless front end of the mobile handset, ContactLAB remained the highlight product on our stand this year. The integrated HDLC block allows the test of the CLF with respect for timeing constraints. In addition, COntactLAB's integration with ProxiLAB allows full testing of the CLF contact and contactless interfaces - an advantage demonstrated at Soliatis with their NFC Test Suite.
Interestingly, ContactLAB is drawing an increasing interest from companies testing ISO 7816 card interfaces... but equally interested in the SWP and future interfaces for contact cards (USIM) in mobile handsets. ContactLAB not only provides a complete set of emulation and protocol analysis features, but also allows easy upgrade of the tool for support of new and future contact protocols.
ProxiSPY - State-of-the-Art Tool Support
for Your Product Demonstrations
ProxiSPY with its full analyzer coverage of a complete range of 13.56 MHz smart card protocols (ISO 14443, ISO 15693, FeliCa and NFC) and innovative probe technology remains a highlight of the Cartes tool demonstrations. ProxiSPY was present around the show floor in demonstrations that included the STMicroelectronics and ASK stands where ProxiSPY gave visitors an inside look at the performance of new contactless smart card components.
Special offer - 15 days remain to place your order!
Many visitors to the Raisonance stand also benefit from an exclusive Cartes '09 special pricing offer on one ProxiSPY hardware base. Several have already placed their orders prior to the 31 December deadline and benefit from a price reduction worth more than $800. There are 15 days left to get those orders to us. So, don't procrastinate and miss out on this special opportunity.
Primer Demonstration Platforms: Fun Invades Cartes'09!
Immediately after the 2009 SESAMES ceremony, I was approached by several visitors who were curious about the mysterious handheld system they had seen in the "hardware" award presentation. Was it a card reader, a mobile phone, a game, a toy, ...? Well, they were not the only ones to notice these little orange invaders at Cartes '09. So what are these things?
The STM32 Primer2 is a portable, low-cost tool for creating microcontroller applications. However, thanks to a great user interface, a powerful and versatile STM32 ARM Cortex-M3 processor and an easily extendible hardware platform, the Primer2 proves to be an ideal demonstrator for many technologies. Components that have been demonstrated as complements to the STM32 range from RF communication ICs to MEMs devices, sensors and captors of every sort. Primer-based multimedia and game applications at Cartes '09 included demos for new VHDR technology (see first article), as well as, e-ticketing and AuKey authentication technology from STMicroelectronics.
The attraction to the Primer tools (aprx. 15,000 units sold), is in part about human nature. With a bright color touch screen and quality audio, the Primer2 is very simply stated... fun! Users like it so much that more than 11,000 are register users. Many also contribute to the tool's dedicated web site - www.stm32circle.com. Which brings us to the second thing that users like about Primers... their community that shares its expertise and inspiration while users explore new technology and its applications.
New smart card technologies lead us to explore some very probing and serious issues about privacy, security, consumer behavior and business. But, in the end, what is interesting to most of us is what we can do with that technology. At events like Cartes, Primers provide accessible demonstrations of how passive RF technologies might impact us in the near future - From managing service delivery for games, music and other media, to exchanging photos, or gathering information about things we want to do or buy. The possibilities pose some serious questions... but they can also be quite fun.
Coming Events
Embedded World
2-4 March 2010
Nuremberg, Germany
Cartes in Asia
16-18 March 2010
AsiaWorld-Expo, Hong Kong
WIMA 2010
4th Global NFC Business & Technical Developers Summit
20-22 April 2010
Grimaldi Forum, Monaco
Smart Card Tool News is a bi-monthly publication containing news and information about Raisonance laboratory and validation tools for the Smart Card industry. It includes notifications of the latest software downloads, including RPGA and tool firmware. It is sent to users and visitors registered on the Raisonance internet site, www.sc-raisonance.com.
