The latest addition to Toshiba's CZ-3000 series, CZ-3017 was developed specifically to address the need for highly secure, highly reliable cards suitable for electronic commerce. In addition to the widely used Secret Key Cryptography system, the new card is designed to support Public Key Cryptography system, the leading-edge card data security technology. Since Public Key Cryptography requires greater processing power, a logic system is supported by a coprocessor. Toshiba achieved this with a new IC module and an advanced CMOS process that both shrinks the chip size and allows the company to cut the price for a basic card to 1,000 yen. CZ-3017 can process a maximum key length of 1,024 bits. It also meets the ISO/IEC7816 standards and the EMV (Europay, Mastercard, VISA) specifications.

CZ-3017 has already been selected as the means to support digital cash for an experimental study of electronic commerce. Organized by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, with the cooperation of Visa International, the study will be launched in Japan this coming spring.

Use of smart cards is surging, especially in financial applications. Worldwide demand is forecast to reach 50 million units this fiscal year, and to double to 100 million in fiscal 1997. Toshiba has long pioneered development of smart cards. Last December, the company launched the CZ-3018, a cost-efficient solution useful in ticketing, stored fee and telecommunications. With the launch of the CZ-3017, Toshiba offers smart cards suitable for an extended range of applications.

Specifications

CPU	8 bit
Protocol	T=1 T=0 (under development)
ROM capacity	20k bytes
RAM capacity	512 bytes
EEPROM capacity	8k bytes
Power supply	3V/5V
coprocessor	maximum key length = 1,024 bits