As 2007 came to a close, Sony and NXP Semidconductors created a firm, Moversa, that will push contactless smart card chips into mobile phones. The companies formed Moversa as a joint venture business that will be developing a secure contactless smart card chip that can be used in a phone, running either the MIFARE or the FeliCa protocols and using near field communications.
According to a statement from the two companies, the Moversa will be doing the development work, production and marketing for this chip and an accompanying Universal Secure Access Module. The new company will be based in Vienna, Austria, and will be run by NXP's Guus Frericks and Sony's Toshio Yoshihara.
The creation of Moversa opens the door for such options as making contactless mobile payments (much like the current breed of contactless credit cards) and for contactless tickets used for transit services. By creating the Universal Secure Access Module, Moversa is expected to be able to develop this technology for incorporation into many varieties of electronics.
While physical access control wasn't hinted as a possibility for this device, the technology could lend itself to allowing something like a cell phone serve as an option for facility door access.
NXP and Sony jointly developed the Near Field Communication standard in 2002, a move which led to this announcement of the Moversa joint venture.
According to the Moversa product website, the chips in the phones would be highly secure, offering DES, 3DES, AES, RSA, ECC and MIFARE cryptoblock security, in addition to exception sensors, a memory protection unit and more.
