Although it was an engineer at one of the constituent companies of Compagnie des Machines Bull SA that invented the concept of the Smart Card, the market has moved away from its Bull CP8 SA Smart Card division in one crucial respect: card issuers these days want their cards to be contactless to eliminate a potential point of failure once the points in the card-reader accumulate dirt or the card contacts get damaged. So Bull has had to team up with Racom Systems Inc, the Englewood, Colorado affiliate of ferro-electric memory pioneer Ramtron International Inc to take on board contactless card technology. Racom has developed contactless Smart Cards that use the non-volatile ferro-electric chips so that the memory retains its state without needing a power source. Bull CP8 and Racom have agreed to develop, manufacture and market contactless Smart Card transaction systems. The aim is to do a single, multifunction contactless Smart Card capable of supporting industry standards and multiple applications currently serviced by incompatible and non-interoperable technologies, including magnetic stripe, contacted Smart Cards, tokens, and RF identification systems. Bull CP8 will market Racom products under its own name internationally and will assemble and personalise cards in Europe using Racom’s contactless technology; the two will also integrate Racom’s contactless reader technology into CP8 readers.
