Forwarded From: "Jay D. Dyson" <jdyson@techreports.jpl.nasa.gov>
Forwarded by: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
From: "ScanThisNews" <mcdonalds@airnet.net>
Microsoft puts smart card on table
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0%2C4%2C27923%2C00.html?dd.ne.tx.fs6.1026
By Tim Clark
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
October 26, 1998
Update: Microsoft tomorrow will announce an extension of its Windows
operating system for smart cards, a company spokesman said today.
Smart cards, which have very limited memory and processing power, are
about the size of a credit card and embedded with a computer chip. The
technology is used for storing data on mobile phones, banking online, and
paying for phone calls and public transit fares.
Microsoft vice president Paul Maritz is scheduled to announce the
operating system initiative tomorrow at Cartes 98, a conference on smart
card technology in Paris.
A new system from Microsoft could bring more acceptance of smart cards in
the United States. Smart cards have been used in Europe, which holds more
than 80 percent of the market, but have been slow to progress in America,
at least in part beacuse of the lack of a standard operating system.
Microsoft is bidding to enter that arena, but Sun Microsystems is already
active in that space with its JavaCard specification. In addition, Mondex,
an e-cash company controlled by MasterCard has its MultOS system designed
so cards with different operating systems can work together.
The company's interest in smart cards parallels its strategy with Windows
CE, a stripped-down version of its PC operating system for consumer
electronics devices. In April, Microsoft announced a version of Windows CE
for automobiles, gas pumps, industrial controllers, and other uses.
The smart-card initiative seeks to go after even smaller, cheaper
devices--particularly when rival Sun is targeting the same business. The
Microsoft spokesman said card developers could use existing Windows tools
to work with their software.
The annual Paris show is a major showcase for the smart card industry.
Schlumberger, a major French manufacturer of smart cards, today unveiled
new software for its cards that transforms a smart card into a security
device to identify its holder.
Many PC makers have said they will produce machines with smart-card
readers built in, a capability that Microsoft has provided in its desktop
PC operating systems. Microsoft has a certification and logo program that
indicates smart card systems work with Windows NT.
-o-
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Received on Wed Oct 28 08:22:27 1998