1998-02-17 , ESC-9853

This week at the Smart Card '98 show in London, UK, Philips Semiconductors announced it is opening its MIFARE® Technology to the market as originally stated to the respective ISO committee (ISO/IEC JTC 1, SC 17, WG 8, TF 2, N 176) in May 1997. As a result, any other company will be able to manufacture and use products compatible with the MIFARE® Interface Technology according to ISO/IEC 14443 Type A. The related patents will be made available to everyone under standard terms, internationally recognised for access to patent rights.

Furthermore an independent certification institute will be established this year to ensure compatibility between the various MIFARE® products produced by different suppliers. The commitment to maintain backward compatibility within the MIFARE® Architecture Platform provides a solid base for investment decisions.

The existing comprehensive portfolio of MIFARE® products satisfies demands ranging from contactless memory card ICs to sophisticated contactless microcontroller solutions. Philips Semiconductors and Siemens are already manufacturers of MIFARE® products and recently have been joined by Hitachi Ltd., as the third silicon supplier. With the opening of the MIFARE® Technology, the number of companies making MIFARE®-based products is expected to increase.

The MIFARE® Architecture Platform covers about 90% of today's contactless smart card market with more than 30 million card ICs in use around the world. MIFARE® has proven its reliability with more than a billion transactions carried out over the last three years.

Contactless smart cards will be the key to the people's mobility in the future. End users will find these ICs in travel passes for public transport, in their boarding passes and tickets for air travel, or in bankcards with an electronic purse for contact and contactless transactions. Users will benefit from less queuing and will no longer need to search to find the right coins. Compatibility ensures that people can choose to have just one card to cover all their daily transactions.

A MIFARE® User Group is also being set up by Philips Semiconductors this year to allow users to exchange information, discuss their needs and available solutions, and to generate ideas on enhancing the MIFARE® Architecture Platform. This group will be open to all MIFARE® users, such as service providers and system integrators plus reader, card and silicon manufacturers. This will be particularly useful for new partners to gain immediate access to MIFARE® information, suppliers and expertise.

Arno Peels, Business Line Manager Identification, Philips Semiconductors, commented: "Philips Semiconductors has been developing MIFARE® over the last seven years to become an industry standard for contactless smartcard ICs. To drive the market towards global acceptance, Philips is now opening the technology in line with the respective ISO standards."

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Philips Electronics NV, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the ninth largest semiconductor supplier in the world. Philips Semiconductors is a leader with a proven reputation in the development and production of cryptocontroller and contactless smart card ICs. Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by regional application labs.

For more information on Philips Semiconductors Identification, please visit  http://cdrom.semiconductors.com/identification/

MIFARE® is a registered trademark of Philips Electronics N.V.