HID Global acquires .NET-based Nectar smart card technology
03 November, 2008
category: Contactless, Corporate, Digital ID, Government
Secure identity provider HID Global, Irvine, Calif., has bought Nectarsmart card .NET technology, based on Microsoft.NET, from StepNexus and Hive Minded. Nectar is a commercial and licensed reference implementation of a .NET virtual machine for embedded systems with a smart card dedicated operating system.
The acquisition, consistent with HID’s offering of a range of smart cards and embedded products operating systems, is expected to support the company’s development initiatives in several ways:
–In vertical markets such as transportation, financial transactions and physical access control, there is a need to have the ability to define and program custom applications in HID’s embedded systems. The ability to provide a .NET environment and development tool chain will reduce time-to-market and support costs while meeting the market’s requirement for programmable systems.
–New HID software platforms associated with the issuance of secure identity are being implemented on the Microsoft .NET platform. These include naviGO, Asure ID 6.0, and iDIRECTOR.
–Multi-technology smart cards support HID’s installed base of physical access control cards while reinforcing the global move to a single cross-platform card used for multiple applications.
The Nectar virtual machine is a Microsoft .NET-compatible implementation of the standardized ECMA335/ISO 23271 Common Language Infrastructure. Nectar enables smart cards to integrate seamlessly with .NET execution environments through its use of standard Microsoft tools and Windows communication protocols.