1999-06-29 , E/IC 1069/35
Business News From Philips Semiconductors

Philips Semiconductors, the leading European semiconductor manufacturer and smartcard manufacturer, Giesecke & Devrient, today announced an agreement to jointly develop a chip card to calculate digital signatures, creating a benchmark high security smart card solution for secured data transmission via internet and e-mail.

The chip card and operating system will be designed to meet the ITSEC E4 High certification, required by German legislation for digital signatures, to help increase confidence by reducing potential fraud in the emerging e-commerce market.

Giesecke & Devrient will use Philips Semiconductors' WE smart card controller family and implement their multi-application card operating system, STARCOS SPK 2.3, specifically designed to support digital signatures, in e-business and home banking applications. STARCOS SPK 2.3 is the latest version of Giesecke & Devrient's market proven STARCOS multi application smart card operating system used worldwide. It provides full 1024 bit RSA functionality including on card key generation.

Alexander Harrer, product line manager for Chip Card ICs at Philips Semiconductors comments, "This cooperation with Giesecke & Devrient for the ITSEC E4 high evaluation demonstrates the trust and recognition for Philips' high security smart card ICs. It is a further commitment from Philips Semiconductors to provide a secure enabling technology for our customers that meets future demands. In combination with Giesecke & Devrient's expertise in high security solutions on smart cards, we are confident to achieve this challenging target for ITSEC."

Jürgen Nehls, a member of Giesecke & Devrient's Board of Directors and responsible for the Cards, Payment and Security Systems Business Unit added, "Philips Semiconductors is a strong partner for us because of its technological expertise. The 32-bit FameX is the most advanced crypto coprocessor available for public key encryption and the WE range has significantly enhanced security features and a fully dedicated architecture design that provides us with solutions for high level security issues. Together with STARCOS SPK 2.3 conforming to national (DIN) and international (ISO/EMV) standards, we can deliver products to our customers which open the path to secure and interoperable e-commerce solutions."

Philips Semiconductors' new WE range is the world's first smart card controller family based on 8-inch wafers with 0.35 µm feature size. It offers significantly enhanced security features which have been evaluated by independent authorities. As a result, the P8WE5032 chip has already been approved by the German Central Credit Control Committee of Banks (Zentraler Kreditausschuß, ZKA) for the German GeldKarte project, while several major players in the industry have recognized the WE family as the technology platform for their new developments.

Internationally active in the fields of banknote and security printing, manufacture of banknote and security paper and automatic banknote processing, Giesecke & Devrient is also technology leader in the production of cards, components and complete integrated solutions for electronic payment systems. The organization employs roughly 4,800 people world-wide, and generates an annual turnover of DM 1.3 billion. For more information visit our web site at  http://www.gdm.de.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the eighth largest semiconductor supplier in the world. Philips Semiconductors is a leader with a proven reputation in the development and production of high security controllers and contactless smart card ICs as well as in components for radio frequency identification. 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. Additional information on Philips Semiconductors can be obtained by accessing its home page at http://www.semiconductors.philips.com