Smart Cards may get smarter if an alliance between Advanced RISC Machines Ltd and Gemplus Group, based in Gemenos, France, gets the European Community funding it needs for a development under the Open Microsystems Initiative, which will be decided in two months. The joint project is likely to revolve around a 32-bit ARM chip on a Gemplus Smart Card, resulting in credit cards able to scan a user’s fingerprints or retina and so deter fraud, but ARM European project manager Matt Lee said details of the joint project are still confidential. At the moment Smart Cards are fairly simple, usually using 8-bit microcontrollers, but in the future they could get more complex, he said. ARM managing director Robin Saxby meanwhile dismissed reports of a flotation of the company within the year. Gemplus started in 1988 from a garage in Aix-en-Provence; it now employs 700 staff, makes 12m cards a month, and forecasts 1993 sales of $130.1m.
