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MIPS Technologies Unveils New Smart-Card Technology
By
a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- MIPS Technologies Inc. introduced a new technology for smart-card processors, the engines that allow data to be stored securely on a credit-card-size device. MIPS and Luxembourg-based smart-card maker Gemplus International SA also introduced a new processor based on the new technology for smart cards for ultralow-power applications.
Smart cards are most popular in Europe and Asia, where they are used for everything from public phones and cellphones to health-care identification. Dataquest, a research company, estimates that smart-card shipments will rise to 1.75 billion by 2004, which would be up from about 500 million in 1999.
MIPS announced a new architecture for a smart-card processor that allows faster operation of the Java computer language and is twice as fast in encryption than current products. The new processor from MIPS, which was co-developed with Gemplus, uses the new technical standards and does work that used to take two separate chips, MIPS said. MIPS doesn't make chips, rather, it licenses the design and gets royalties from the chip makers. MIPS said it expects products with this new chip to start appearing next year.
In 4 p.m. trading Friday on the Nasdaq Stock Market, MIPS Class A shares were off $3.38, or 8.8%, at $35. Gemplus American depositary shares were up 13 cents at $15.38.
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