Hitachi, Ltd. today announced the launch of the H8/3112 MULTOS(multi-application
operating system) chip - a new, high security chip enabled with MULTOS, a high
security operating system for smart cards that enables card issuers to create a customer
specific card, combining a number of applications on a single card.
Mr. Kunihiko Misaki, General Manager, New Financial Systems, Services and Products
Division of Hitachi said, "We anticipate that MULTOS will become the de facto
standard for multi-application smartcards and, as the only viable platform available
today, is set to drive growth in the rapidly growing smartcard market."
Hitachi already has orders for the chip from a number of potential issuers, including the
MYCAL CARD INC. of Japan which plans to migrate its approximately 5 million credit
cards to chip cards, starting in early 1999. The MYCAL system will be the world's first
large-scale system in operation utilising MULTOS.
The new chip has been jointly developed by Mondex International, Dai Nippon Printing
Co. Ltd (DNP) and Hitachi, combining the companies' collective expertise in
semiconductors and smartcard platform development. The three companies are founding
members of MAOSCO which is an industry-wide consortium formed in May 1997 to
drive the adoption of MULTOS as an industry standard and to manage its on-going
development.
Mr. Hidenori Nokubo, Director, General Manager, Business Forms & Securities
Printing Operations of DNP, said "Today's announcement is further evidence of our
continued support for MULTOS and a by-product of the strong working relationship we
have with Hitachi."
Mr. Nick Habgood, Chief Executive of MAOSCO, said "Hitachi's and DNP's
considerable commitment to MULTOS, providing the first silicon implementation, has
played a major role in establishing MULTOS as an industry standard."
The implementation of MULTOS makes the H8/3112 chip the only high security
multi-application chip platform available today. As well as featuring an on-board crypto
co-processor, the H8/3112 chip offers 8kbytes of EEPROM and 24kbytes of ROM.
The chip utilises public key cryptography and benefits from Hitachi's extensive
experience in smartcard security, notably for Mondex system. In addition, it incorporates
a range of new countermeasures specifically designed to provide greater chip tamper
resistance.
About Hitachi, Ltd.:
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global
electronics companies, with fiscal 1997 (ended March 31, 1998) consolidated sales of
8,417 billion yen($63.8 billion*). The company manufactures and markets a wide range
of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and
industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web
Site at http://www.hitachi.co.jp. * At an exchange rate of 132 yen to the dollar.
For Mondex, Hitachi developed the high security smartcard IC at the very heart of the
system together with a range of products suitable for use at the personal, retail or
banking infrastructure level. Hitachi is a "Total Mondex System" supplier. For more
details, see Hitachi's Mondex Products Web Site at
http://www.hitachi.co.jp/Div/nfs/index.html.
About Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd.:
Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. is one of the world's leading printing companies with a
worldwide turnover of US dollar around 10 billion fiscal 1997 as the end of March l998.
It has been involved in the development of Operating Systems of Mondex smartcards
and has supplied over 850,000 smartcards as the end of September l998 for the Mondex
Scheme around the world since 1991; the first Public Implementation in Swindon, UK,
Hong Kong, Guelph, Canada, San Francisco, Jacksonville, USA, University of Exeter,
York University, Nottingham University in UK, Sydney, Australia, Wellington and
Christchurch, New Zealand and San Jose, Costa Rica.
As a Card Bureau, DNP has been working and shipped out Mondex Card since June
l996. The volume of shipped out card which DNP performed application loaded are over
250,000 cards worldwide. For more information on DNP, please visit DNP's Web Site
at http://www.dnp.co.jp
About MAOSCO:
MAOSCO is an industry wide consortium which was formed in May 1997 to drive the
adoption of MULTOS as an industry standard and to manage its on-going
development. The current members of the consortium include:
American Express
DNP
Fujitsu
Hitachi
Keycorp
MasterCard International and Mondex International
Motorola
Siemens
The consortium members are the "guardians" of the MULTOS specification which is
openly licensed as a global platform for multi-application smart cards. Mondex
International and MasterCard International are committed to MULTOS and collectively
represent over 400,000,000 cardholders worldwide. MULTOS is a multi-application
operating system for smartcards. It will be available on a non-proprietary 'open systems'
basis to ensure that it becomes standard for smartcards in all sectors including finance,
retail, travel, media and telecommunications.
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