Gemplus SA has announced the first SmartCard with a 32-bit RISC processor – as opposed to the usual 8-bit microprocessor which have to be programmed in low-level assembly language. For its first implementation, GemPlus is using a chip based on Advanced RISC Machines Ltd’s ARM7 RISC core, designed by Texas Instruments in submicron technology. The chip has 32 Kbytes of non volitile Flash memory and 8 Kbytes of ROM. The card is a result of work carried out by the Gemplus research group’s Esprit-funded Cascade project, begun in 1994, which is also working on operating systems embedding virtual machine, security and biometric features. Gemplus says that 32-bit chips are necessary to support the Java Card 2.0 specification, and will start using the chip for its first Java 2.0 card, the Gemplusi, along with the GemXpresso rapid applet development tool. Both were demonstrated at the Cartes 97 exhibition earlier this month, though the company gave no dates for production models. Schlumberger SA also launched its first Java Card earlier this month (CI No 3,271).
