GlobalPlatform and Maosco have announced a single technical approach for issuers who need to manage multiple application smart cards, regardless of the card operating platform.
GlobalPlatform, the cross industry organisation promoting a standardised technical framework, and Maosco, the smart-card industry consortium managing the Multos platform, have worked together to produce a common identification process that will enable smart card systems to identify the on-card operating system, whether it is Multos or Open Platform, before completing the platform-specific command.
The solution is backward compatible with existing Multos and Open Platform cards and can be implemented today. It consists of two standard system commands using the International Standards Organisation (ISO) construction to send and receive data from a card. The solution is scheduled to be part of the next release of both Maosco and GlobalPlatform card specifications.
Using the approach, vendors will be able to build card management and back-end systems equipment that can manage, personalise and issue both Open Platform and Multos cards.
Steve Brown, chairman of GlobalPlatform believes the combined solution will have a big impact on the smart card industry. "It will help remove technological uncertainty that has generally hampered the growth of smart cards worldwide. The resulting clarity is a welcome sign to issuers in many industries that have been investigating the benefits of multiple application smart cards."