INSIDE Contactless Targets MicroPass-Based “ICAO-Lite” Solutions For Growing ID Market

New Lightweight ICAO-Compliant Solutions to Satisfy a Broad Range of Secure Identity Applications

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France, September 23, 2008 – Anticipating the need in the market for faster, lighter-weight versions of ICAO-compliant identity chips, INSIDE Contactless, the world leader in advanced contactless microprocessor platforms, today announced it is building upon its MicroPass® platform to support a variety of “ICAO-Lite” identity applications.  With faster read times and lighter weight memory options than standard ICAO solutions, INSIDE’s MicroPass ICAO-Lite offerings deliver a flexible, cost-effective solution for creating mid-range ID cards and documents that meet ICAO standards, but with less data storage.
 
ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) has set standards for ePassports and eVisas based upon the use of contactless chip technology with large EEPROM memory requirements to store high-resolution biometric data and other identity information.  But ePassports, eVisas and other heavyweight ICAO ID applications represent only about 10 percent of the overall identity market, leaving a huge, unserved potential market for INSIDE’s ICAO-Lite solutions.  As a result, INSIDE is anticipating strong market demand for other ID cards and documents with less stringent storage requirements and for customers requiring lower cost solutions. 
 
“The flexibility and power of our MicroPass platform enabled us to quickly create this unique MicroPass ICAO-Lite solution and satisfy any customer need for customization,” said Bertrand Moussel, EVP of sales for EMEA and LATAM at INSIDE Contactless.  “Our MicroPass ICAO-Lite solutions have already gained enthusiastic support from our customers for their mid-range ID card and document needs because of their speed and flexibility, as well for their interoperability with existing ICAO-compliant readers, personalization devices and other infrastructure.”

The new MicroPass ICAO-Lite solutions feature 16-bit RISC microprocessors, a file manager, hardware DES encryption, ISO 14443-B or 15693 RF interfaces, an option for Basic Access Control (BAC) application support,  and 4 or 8 kilobytes of EEPROM data memory instead of the large, 64-kilobyte EEPROM found in standard heavyweight ICAO-compliant chips.  While INSIDE’s ICAO-Lite solutions maintain the same logical data structure as a standard ICAO chip, the dramatically reduced on-chip data storage results in faster transaction times.  By building upon the MicroPass architecture, INSIDE is able to offer its ICAO-Lite solutions at significantly lower cost compared to standard ICAO-compliant products, and INSIDE can customize the data structure to meet specific customer requirements.

According to Moussel, INSIDE has already developed a basic access control application for the MicroPass ICAO-Lite solutions , and preliminary tests indicate a logical data structure read time of less than one second for the 4-kilobyte memory option.

Since it was first launched at CARTES in November of 2005, the MicroPass intelligent payment platform has achieved its unprecedented success by continuing to deliver superior performance and flexibility, and is now the platform of choice for certified card manufacturers around the world. The MicroPass platform is designed to power open standard contactless and dual-interface bank card payments along with other value-added applications in all global regions.  Based upon a RISC architecture and optimized to the demanding requirements of contactless transactions, each of the MicroPass family of products is designed to meet the demands of issuer organizations in the bank card payments, transit, access control, and ID markets.

Availability and Pricing

INSIDE’s MicroPass-based ICAO-Lite solutions are available now.  The MicroPass 5101 features 8 kilobytes of available EEPROM data storage.  The MicroPass 5102 features BAC application support in EEPROM and 4 kilobytes of available EEPROM data storage. For more information on pricing and INSIDE’s customization capabilities, security expertise, personalization, support and other service options, please contact INSIDE Contactless.