Vendors Unveil Mega-Memory SIMs

摘要

Two major smart card vendors introduced prototypes of massive-memory SIMs at last month's 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, France. Although applications for the cards are scarce, handsets are almost nonexistent and standards are a work in progress, the vendors say they are offering the industry a glimpse of the future. The vendors, Gemplus International and Oberthur Card Systems, both of France, are targeting the SIMs for high-speed, third-generation networks that mobile telecom operators are beginning to roll out. The cards would offer up to 1,000-fold increase in storage capacity or more compared with today's high-end cards. They do that by combining smart card chips with the type of flash memory used in removable cards and USB tokens that plug into digital cameras, PCs, handsets and other devices.