Sun Microsystems Inc. has announced version 2.2 of its Java Card technology, which will include easier programming of applications using the smart card technology as well as improved support for wireless standards, the company announced Tuesday.
The open source Java Card technology, first introduced by the Palo Alto, California, company in 1996, has also been enhanced in this new version to increase the interoperability of applications on smart cards from different vendors, Sun said in a statement.
The Java Card technology is designed to securely store personal data on cards that are generally the size of a standard credit card. According to Sun, there are already 200 million smart cards in use worldwide for functions such as financial services, government, personal identity, telecommunications and e-commerce.
Another new feature for the Java Card is RIM (Remote Method of Invocation), which makes designing applications an easier process for developers by allowing the Java technology to work with both the smart card and the smart card terminal, Sun said.
The updated version of the smart card technology also has increased support of wireless standards, including those from standards organizations ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute), 3GPP (Third Generation Partner Project) and WAP (Wireless Access Protocol), Sun said.
The technology also has additional cryptographic algorithms AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and elliptic curves to bring more security options to the software, Sun said.
Java Card version 2.1 applications do not need modifications in order to work with the technology version 2.2, Sun said.
Sun will demonstrate the 2.2 version of the Java card technology this week at the CardTech/SecurTech 2002 in New Orleans, the company said.
