Luxembourg and JavaOne^SM Conference, San Francisco, 27 June 2005–Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294–GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world’s leading provider of smart card-based solutions, today announced a new prototype for its future generation of Java Card™ products. This latest innovation responds to an industry-wide need for a multi-featured micro-application server platform that will benefit from new smart card hardware evolutions.

In a joint presentation with SUN Microsystems, Inc. where the latter outlined its ongoing efforts for future Java Card evolutions, Gemplus presented a prototype that is positioned as a major step targeting 2008 and beyond. This prototype will, for example, enable end-users to access and manage private data from their web browser. In addition, the card issuer will be able to remotely manage the card through the network, which will be useful for updates in applications, data and even in removing redundant applications. Also, client applications residing on the desktop will be able to access the services offered by the card and conversely, the card will be able to initiate a remote dialogue with an application anywhere on the network. This prototype has been designed for use in all market sectors, from Identity and Security, Government applications, financial services and mobile communications.

Dr. David Naccache, Senior Vice President, Research and Innovation, Gemplus, explained: “This prototype has been designed to showcase potential new services based on future Java Card technology. Our vision is to turn smart cards into a universal node within any network architecture which will hugely facilitate the deployment of complex technologies and the dialogue between Internet-based services and smart cards. This is an important step in the right direction”.

The new prototype offers an enhanced Virtual Machine, multi-threading capabilities for running multiple applications on the card concurrently, automatic garbage collection for optimising memory use and an embedded TCP/IP stack which allows the card to communicate as a peer with any connected device. Lastly, the card offers a web server extensible through an architecture derived from the servlets used in Java™.

“Gemplus has, once again, demonstrated their excellent technical skills by providing this exciting peek into how Java Card technology may be advanced to meet a new set of future challenges,” said Ram Banerjee, Head of Java Card marketing at Sun Microsystems Inc. “The flexibility of the Java Card platform in being able to support such innovation clearly demonstrates why Java Card remains the world’s leading multi-application smart card platform.”