Samsung Electronics has notched a major distinction in terms of technological up-gradation of flash memory cards. The company has announced the introduction of a 2MB flash memory-branded IC. The IC S3FJ91L earmarks the major expansion of storage capacity in these cards — almost by double. The new IC is slated to empower smart cards to meet all the requirements for 3G multimedia handsets as it offers high memory densities for SMS, telephone directory, games and Internet services. Samsung has unveiled the new card in the ongoing Cartes 2005 exhibition held at Paris, France which will conclude tomorrow.

A major first for this IC is that it has been developed on a 300 mm water fab which is slated to keep its pricing level on the lower side. And it is well compatible with many of the popular smart cards that you use like USIM and UIM cards for GSM, GPRS and also JAVA and multimedia cards. The speed in the S3FJ91L is backed by ARM-based 32bit SC200 Secure Core, a 3-DES encryption standard and a PKI crypto processor. The IC even has built-in anti-hacking features with 16KB Static RAM to enable easy upgrades and the addition of various applications by software developers. On the crucial power consumption parameter, this IC also scores brownie points as it only needs an operating voltage from 1.62V to 5V.

With the introduction of the new S3FJ91L, Samsung is now in a position to offer a well-defined line of smart card ICs with embedded memory ranging from 96KB to 2MB. The company seems to be leaving no stone unturned in reaping very high dividends of a projected boom in smart card demands over the next few years. According to a market research company, iSuppli, the sale of smart cards will topple the figure of 1 billion units this year and will further mount up to over 1.6 billion units by 2008.