Smartcards have gained considerable popularity during the past years. There is a virtually unlimited number of applications for devices which offer secure means for storing and exchanging information and which enable strong encryption. Smartcards are actually specialized microcontrollers placed on a plastic card, including both volatile and non-volatile memory and a communication and power supply interface to the outside world. A smartcard receives commands and sends back a reply which corresponds to the application. While not being very useful it is well possible to use a smartcard for non-security-related tasks such as calculations or data logging.

JavaCards are smartcards which contain an interpreter for bytecode-generated from programs written in Java. This code can be loaded onto the card after it has been preverified, i.e. checked for consistency and compatibility. Since Java™ is a standardized programming language, this approach allows for vendor independent development of applications.

In addition, modern JavaCards are equipped with a sophisticated operating enviroment including an Operating System like JCOP which lets the user dynamically add and remove applications. This makes it possible to run banking applications, access control for a company gate and an electronic ticket for the public transportation system all on one single plastic card. The biggest challenge of those systems is to assure at any time that under no circumstances an application gains knowledge of another concurrently installed program and its data.

telos has years of experience in developing both, smartcard applications and platform components. If you are looking for a professional partner in this domain, please contact us now.