GlobalPlatform and the SD Association Sign Memorandum of Understanding to Align Standards
09 November 2011 – A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been agreed between the SD Association – a global ecosystem creating interoperable memory card storage standards, and GlobalPlatform – the organization which standardizes the management of applications on secure chip technology. The two bodies will work together to advance their respective technology standards to ensure market interoperability across the secure media ecosystem, that will enable mobile phones and other portable devices to provide authentication services with SD memory cards.
GlobalPlatform and the SD Association will jointly build a secure, open, dynamic environment for deploying secure services in connected devices supporting SD standards. The activity will advance and standardize SD memory cards as a secure element (SE). This will enable service and content providers, as well as consumer electronics manufacturers, to use the SD interface to offer new value-added services, applications and secure content, as well as authenticate transactions and identity. Both industry associations will also advance their offering across a number of mobile technology growth sectors, such as mobile TV and multimedia content management.
Both associations are committed to specifications that ensure long-term interoperability and scalability through backwards compatibility.
“SD standards have a long history of driving new applications in consumer electronics. The SD Association’s commitment to innovation of new specifications keeps it well-positioned to meet future market needs,” said Norm Frentz, SD Association Chairman. “Collaborating with GlobalPlatform helps our plans to support standards-based authentication services.”
Gil Bernabeu, Technical Director at GlobalPlatform, comments: “From the perspective of secure application providers, it is very important that regardless of the SE selected, the application performs as required and to the highest security standards. GlobalPlatform has worked with UICC technology over the last few years, and as a form factor neutral specification, we are very keen to invest time in the SD market to understand and respond to its requirements. Working with this group will also provide us with further insight into aspirational implementation models and new applications that will be used by SD stakeholders, which our specifications must support.”
Today, SD standards are supported in more than 80 percent of all mobile phones with removable memory to enrich mobile phone features and services.
