CHONGQING UC INNOVATION TECHNOLOGY CERTIFIES INSIDE’S PICOREAD PLATFORM FOR CONTACTLESS PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS

INSIDE’s PicoRead Becomes the Standard Contactless Reader Chip in China’s POS Payment Terminal Market

Aix en Provence, France, December 18, 2006 – INSIDE Contactless, a world leader in contactless semiconductor chips, today announced that Chongqing UC Innovation Technology has certified INSIDE’s PicoRead contactless platform for use in contactless point of sale (POS) payment terminals throughout China. As a result, PicoRead has become the industry’s first contactless integrated circuit to achieve certification for the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).

INSIDE’s PicoRead is a contactless platform used in numerous large-scale reader devices, and the world’s first contactless reader chip to support every major international standard, including ISO 14443 A & B, ISO 15693, FeliCa™. This enables PicoRead to support contactless payment transactions in all global markets and is a natural choice for terminal manufacturers who are enabling traditional and new form-factor payment terminals with contactless payments support.

Chongqing UC Innovation Technology has developed the first POS payment terminal compliant with the PBOC IC Card 2.0 standard. INSIDE’s PicoRead technology was selected based on a number of factors, including performance, reliability, and support for international standards.

“PicoRead continues to gain momentum as the industry’s leading contactless reader technology, and we’re thrilled to work with Chongqing UC Innovation Technology to certify PicoRead for adoption by the People’s Bank of China,” said Simon Hu Sen, Sales Vice President for Greater China. “Incorporating PicoRead into the latest version of PBOC POS payment terminals also provides an important step in support of related contactless retail and transit opportunities – which will begin trials in China in the months ahead.”

Along with supporting card-based contactless technology, PicoRead also supports contactless payment interaction with NFC-enabled mobile phones. A number of NFC trials involving Chinese operators, NFC-equipped handsets, and retail outlets including convenience stores, cinemas, and vending machines, are scheduled to take place in the months ahead throughout China.

About INSIDE Contactless

Headquartered in France with a global presence in China, Singapore, Poland and the USA, INSIDE Contactless is a leading fabless semiconductor provider, delivering the most flexible, innovative, cost-effective, and trusted platform for contactless applications including bank card payments and Near Field Communications (NFC). INSIDE is involved in numerous industry initiatives, including the NFC Forum, which is driving the standardization of NFC; as well as the IN-CLUB Limited, which is a non-profit association that brings together companies in the Payment, ID, Mass Transit and Mobile application markets, to collaborate on contactless applications and initiatives. For more information on INSIDE, please visit: www.insidecontactless.com.

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