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Gemplus helps speed and simplify smart card application development with a host of new Java Card™ applications

Gemplus Labs collaborates with Java Card Forum to pioneer the development of Java Card™ Remote Method Invocation (JCRMI) to enable Java™ technology developers outside of the smart card community to build applications for Java Card™ technology.

  • The availability of innovative and useful applications is an important driver for the wide scale deployment of multiple application smart cards
  • Combining smart cards and Java™ technology greatly expands the potential supply of applications with a creative pool of approximately 2.3 million Java™ application developers world-wide
  • Gemplus and Java Card Forum collaboration on JCRMI provides a model that significantly reduces major design, programming and testing difficulties for developers outside of and within the smart card community

JavaOneSM 2002 Developers Conference, San Francisco, CA, 26th March 2002 - Gemplus International S.A (Euronext: Sicovam 5768 and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card-enabled solutions, today announced that its Labs have developed, in concert with Java Card Forum, Java Card™ Remote Method Invocation (JCRMI), a technology that will help to speed the design and adoption of multiple application smart cards worldwide.

Most multiple application smart cards today are based on the Java Card platform, opening up the world of smart cards to a creative pool of approximately 2.3 million Java application developers. Java Card technology ensures that the smart card applets are interoperable at execution level, but it does not cover the exchanges between the smart card and the terminal. The message format used to transport communication between the smart card and the terminal, APDU (Application Protocol Data Unit) , is a complicated language often not understood by programmers outside of the smart card industry. Hence, it forces programmers into a time-consuming process of writing cumbersome code.

JCRMI greatly increases the productivity of all developers working on Java Card applications, allowing the programmer to develop distributed applications quickly and easily. It provides a model to manage the relationships of Java applications interacting between different machines and frees developers from having to manage low-level exchanges, significantly reducing major design, programming and testing difficulties.

What Java Card RMI Means for Off-Card Programmers
Off-card programmers no longer need to have extensive smart card expertise to develop smart card applications. JCRMI framework allows programmers to ignore the APDU message-passing mechanism in order to focus on interfaces with Java Card applets. Because the Java Card 2.1 RMI is a strict subset of the Java Standard Edition RMI framework, it provides a familiar development methodology, and facilitates the integration of Java Card applets into information systems. JCRMI gives off-card programmers many advantages, including object-oriented methodology, reliable deployment and better integration into global systems.

What Java Card RMI Means for On-Card Programmers
Java Card technology with RMI is a framework that allows on-card programmers to implement card applets at the level of objects and methods, thus ignoring the APDU message-passing mechanism to concentrate their efforts on building Java Card applet functionality. These benefits give on-card programmers many advantages, namely object-oriented methodology, shorter development time and more compact code.

What Java Card RMI Means for Application Providers
Application providers will also benefit from JCRMI, since today's Java platforms have largely implemented RMI, making the deployment of distributed applications easier and faster. The reliability associated with JCRMI will actually reduce network problems and thus boost confidence that an application has been properly executed.

Today, Java Card technology is deployed by governments, banks, retailers and mobile phone operators around the world. With strong support of Java Card technology, Gemplus Labs started developing JCRMI more than three years ago, when RMI was present in mainstream Java technology, but absent from Java Card technology. Today Gemplus and the Java Card Forum are working together to enhance the initial successful implementation for distribution to Java Card licensees.

"Gemplus' success with JCRMI was driven by two key visions: the evolution of Java Card technology to resemble mainstream Java technology, allowing many more developers to write applications for smart cards and to enhance the message dialog that is essential between applets in the world of smart cards, mobile devices and networked systems," said Tony Engberg, Chief Technology Officer and Pierre Paradinas, Software Labs Director at Gemplus.

For more information, please visit the Gemplus booth #726 at the JavaOne 2002 Conference.

About Gemplus

Gemplus is the world's number one provider of solutions empowered by smart cards. Gemplus helps its clients offer an exceptional range of portable, personalized solutions that bring security and convenience to people's lives. These include mobile Internet access, interoperable banking facilities, e-commerce, and a wealth of other applications. Gemplus is the only completely dedicated, truly global player in the smart card industry, with the largest R&D team, unrivalled experience, and an outstanding track record of technological innovation. Gemplus trades its shares on Euronext Paris S.A. First Market and on the Nasdaq Stock Market as GEMP in the form of ADSs. Its revenue in 2000 was 1.205 Billion Euros. It employs 6721 people in 37 countries throughout the world.
Gemplus: Beyond smart

Contacts

Gemplus
Marielle Bricman
Global Press Relations Manager
Tel: +33 4 42 36 55 96
Marielle.bricman@gemplus.com

Gemplus
Kerry Butler
Noram Public Relations
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Kerry.butler@gemplus.com

Edelman PR Worldwide
Alicia Jones
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©2002 Gemplus All rights reserved. Gemplus, the Gemplus logo and GemXpresso are trademarks and service marks of Gemplus S.A. and are registered in certain countries. All other trademarks and service marks, whether registered or not in specific countries, are the property of their respective owners. Sun, Java and Java Card are trademarks and service marks of Sun Microsystems, Inc., and may be registered in certain countries.