We've heard about various memory-card based contactless IC solutions, and this is the first I know of that supports SecureDigital. Swell.

It also supports FeliCa applications, so if you were thinking about upgrading to o­ne of those new 900iC series phones, think harder.

Matsushita Electric Industries has developed a new series of SD memory card called "smartSD," which contains a contactless IC function. Sample shipments will be offered beginning in December of 2005, and the company plans for commercialization in the Fall of 2005.

smartSD is an SD memory card that contains a contactless IC card function, and conforms to MOPASS Consortium specifications. The contactless IC part itself uses "FeRam," a non-volatile memory which allows for faster writing and processing speeds than traditional EEPROM. Because of this, Matsushita has said the card also supports usage at places such as transportation gates.

The size of the card is the same as a conventional SD card, and a miniSD card is also in the lineup. However, because the miniSD card type does not contain an antenna, an antenna must be featured in the device in which it is being inserted. Furthermore, this will become the upper-level model of SD cards and miniSD cards, though development of SD cards will continue as it has.

Also, the internal memory of the card is encrypted using a particular are of the IC card - this means that the IC sector acts as a key for the encrypted data, allowing for retention of security. Music, contents, and large-sized applications can be securely saved o­n the memory card. Even if the card is lost, the information inside of it will not be viewable, just like a contactless IC card. When used o­n a cellular phone, certification is done as per a PIN o­n each card, and Matsushita has said that they are in the process of investigating a process to disable IC card services using a network connection.

The supported contactless communication interfaces are ISO/IEC14442 TypeB and JICSAP 2.0. Contactless IC is currently being expanded by JR East Japan, Suica, and DoCoMo i-Mode FeliCa, but this smartSD card can also store FeliCa applications. Matsushita, regarding the FeliCa is a contactless IC system, has appealed this new IC card function by saying that it allows for security and a large memory capacity.

Matsushita plans o­n first developing smartSD as an enterprise solution, and will then offer it to consumers for use in cellular phones and AV equipment. Also, smartSD is being developed in a group - at the announcement event, Mr. Masaki Akiyama, CEO of Matsushita Electric, enthusiastically said "This is o­ne key device intended for Matsushita's ubiquitous society. We are emboldened."

Furthermore, while SD cards up until now have passed through the fingers of the SDA (SD Card Alliance) to be expanded upon by other companies, smartSD will be avoiding the SDA altogether.



Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/20784.html

Press Release:
http://matsushita.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/jn041001-1/jn041001-1.html