Sharp, IBM to co-develop 1MB flash memory card

October 25, 2004 – Sharp Corp. and IBM Japan Ltd. are teaming up to create a 1MB smart card that will be equipped with IBM’s Java Card Open Platform (JCOP) operating system, according to Asia Pulse Pte Ltd. The firms aim to begin shipping samples around January.

Conventional smart cards offer 16-32KB of memory, but Sharp’s card, which uses flash memory technology, dwarfs this capacity. Sharp and IBM aim to develop a card that can be used as an all-in-one credit card, e-money settlement tool, and employee authorization ID. It will also carry safety features such as fingerprint data.

With IBM’s JCOP, an embedded operating system based on Java technology, a single card can be equipped with multiple Java applications. This platform is widely used within the credit card industry.

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