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| Feature: Momentum is Building for RFID World 2005 |
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With less than a month to go before RFID World 2005, exhibit space has already been sold out for the show, with more than 130 exhibitors ready to come together at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Dallas, March 2-3. The show will feature a series of high-profile speakers including keynotes from Texas Instruments, Kimberly-Clark, Wal-Mart, EPCglobal, and a host of early RFID adopters.
With eight breakout tracks over two days, more than 30 educational sessions and case studies – from pharma track and trace to defense supply management to fresh produce supply tracking – as well as a series of pre-conference events, RFID World is the place to gather for practical, in-depth strategies for implementing RFID and EPC solutions.
Don't miss RFID World, March 2-3 at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas, just outside of Dallas. For information or to register,
visit http://www.rfid-world.com/rfid05/ or contact show producer Shorecliff Communications at 1-800-608-9641 or info@scievents.com.
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New ISO 14443 Solution for MasterCard PayPass™
This month, Texas Instruments announced that it plans to deliver ISO/IEC 14443 compliant RFID chips designed to meet the stringent security requirements for MasterCard International's PayPass™ line of RFID payment cards and tokens. TI expects to submit this product for MasterCard certification in the second quarter of 2005, with full production planned to start in the second half of this year.
TI's new 13.56 MHz RFID chip is the latest to be introduced in a series of solutions based on the company's ISO/IEC 14443 technology platform. This proven platform features products with universally accepted and standardized cryptography, using National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) approved crypto algorithms, including Triple DES and SHA-1.
The ISO/IEC 14443 standard allows for this increased level of security because it supports significantly faster rates of data exchange (up to 848 kbits per second), enabling more complex security information to be passed between an RFID card and reader without affecting the user's experience. As an added feature, read ranges for products based on the ISO/IEC 14443 platform are also limited to 4 centimeters (roughly 1.5 inches), further increasing the security of the transaction.
As credit and bank card issuers expand RFID pilots throughout the U.S. and into other countries, the opportunity for TI to serve this market with its secure ISO/IEC 14443 solutions is significant. According to a recent Nilson Report, the total credit and pre-paid card market totaled 4.38 billion units in 2003 (representing cards shipped to Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, Discover, JCB, ATM cards, and retailers). MasterCard's customer financial institutions alone issued more than 627.5 million MasterCard-branded cards in the first half of 2004, according to an August 2004 company press release.
"The financial services industry recognizes that ISO/IEC 14443-based RFID solutions provide the stringent levels of security required for conducting payment transactions," said Shawn Rogers, director, wireless commerce and Tag-it™ products, Texas Instruments RFid Systems. "With our heritage in pioneering technologies in new markets, we're working with leading bank card issuers and credit card companies to bring these highly reliable and secure RFID solutions to this market."
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American Express recently announced that CVS will be the first national merchant partner to accept its ExpressPay RFID payment tokens and RFID-enabled credit cards. CVS currently has ExpressPay-enabled POS terminals in 485 stores in Arizona, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kansas and Missouri, and plans a full roll out to its entire fleet of more than 5,300 stores by mid-2005. American Express also announced that it plans to expand ExpressPay's availability to consumers nationwide in 2005.
American Express is currently conducting ExpressPay pilots in Phoenix and New York. The Phoenix pilot includes participating locations at CVS, Carl's Jr., Fry's (Kroger) supermarket, Blimpie Subs & Salads, ChevronTexaco, Dairy Queen, Cold Stone Creamery, Ritz Camera, Schlotzsky's Deli locations and many others. Many of the keyfobs and cards in the hands of consumers in these pilots feature Texas Instruments ISO/IEC 14443 compliant 13.56 MHz RFID technology.
Market research with pilot participants confirmed that consumers view convenience and simplicity of use as two of the major benefits. Important merchant benefits include reduced transaction time and increased spending relative to cash. American Express studies have shown the length of time for ExpressPay transactions is faster than both cash and traditional credit transactions. In addition, ExpressPay customers increased their average transaction size by 20% to 30% compared with their cash spending.
"We are very pleased with our pilot results and the potential of ExpressPay," said David Bonalle, vice president and general manager of Advanced Payments, American Express. "This new payment product is delivering strong benefits to our cardmembers and CVS is a great partner because of their commitment to bringing extra value to their customers."
"ExpressPay is another example of our commitment to making it "CVS Easy" for our customers to shop our stores," said Jon Roberts, senior vice president of Store Operations. "ExpressPay offers a speedy, convenient alternative to traditional payment types, helping to improve the overall speed of checkout."
For more information about ExpressPay, visit http://www.americanexpress.com/expresspay.
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TI and Impinj Ensure EPC Gen 2 Interoperability
TI and Impinj, Inc, a fabless semiconductor company, have agreed to cooperate in development of products that are compliant with the Class 1, Generation 2 (Gen 2) standard recently ratified by EPCglobal Inc™. This cooperation will ensure interoperability among Gen 2 products offered by the two companies, while enabling both companies to improve time-to-market for their Gen 2 offerings.
The newest and most advanced of the EPCglobal UHF RFID specifications, EPC Gen 2 overcomes limitations of older Class 0 and Class 1 specifications, providing enhanced features and improved performance including robust operation in high-density reader environments, compliance with global spectrum regulations, superior tag throughput, field rewritability, and enhanced security and privacy.
"TI is committed to ensuring interoperability of its EPC Gen 2 solutions in order to support widespread adoption of EPC technology as the industry continues its path toward a global standard," said Julie England, vice president of Texas Instruments and general manager of Texas Instruments RFid Systems. "Gen 2 is the logical choice for UHF deployment because of its potential to create global links across the international supply chain, and TI is on the fast-track to offer its Gen 2 solutions this year."
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