(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Toshiba Introduces JavaCard 2.0-Compliant Smart Card
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February 10, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Toshiba Corp. announced that it commercialized
the JMAGIC, a smart card that conforms to the JavaCard 2.0 specifications,
and has begun sample shipments to select customers.
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Toshiba is the first Japanese company to ship a smart card that conforms
to the JavaCard 2.0 specifications. Bull S.A. and Gemplus of France
and other makers have already begun supplying the product. Swisscom
has started using such cards to identify subscribers for its digital
mobile telephone service called GSM Phase 2+.
Toshiba's JMAGIC is a sample version developed for Smart Commerce Japan
Part II, a second-phase test of smart commerce scheduled to be held
in Kobe this summer, at the earliest.
JMAGIC features a low unit price, due mainly to the use of an 8-bit microcomputer called T6N29.
The Java Card specifications enable Java technology to run on smart cards
and other devices. Because the software developed in Java is independent
of the instruction set, the specification is advantageous for an environment
to develop and execute software for smart cards that use microchips
from different makers.
Also, the smart card with the JavaCard technology enables software to
be easily modified, corrected and expanded. For this reason, it is possible
to modify and upgrade the software and offer a new service after the
card is issued.
The card is capable of performing multiple applications, and this enables
a single card to serve as a multifunctional unit that provides two or
more types of services.
(BizTech News Dept.)
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