Open NFC: The De Facto Open Source Project NFC Stack for Android, MeeGo, Linux and Windows Mobile

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France, April 21, 2010 – As a result of the success of its Open NFC™ commercial-grade NFC protocol stack, INSIDE Contactless, a leading provider of advanced, open-standard contactless chip technologies, today announced it is making the Open NFC protocol stack more widely available, placing the full source code and full API documentation on SourceForge.net for free download. The source code for the core Open NFC version 3.5 software–including Android, Windows Mobile, Linux and Java (JSR-257) editions–and API documentation will be available on SourceForge.net starting May 15, and a web site with more information on Open NFC can be found at http://www.insidecontactless.com/opennfc. As the only provider of Open NFC software in the industry, this move extends INSIDE’s software stack as the de facto open solution for NFC enablement on mobile devices.

“INSIDE’s Open NFC software has received support from a broad array of participants in the NFC ecosystem, including major handset manufacturers, developers and carriers, and we are already in discussion with major industry players to support Open NFC as the de facto standard NFC stack for the Android, MeeGo, Linux and Windows Mobile platforms,” said Philippe Martineau, executive vice president of the NFC business line for INSIDE Contactless. “Open NFC offers a number of benefits to these stakeholders, including an open, consistent API across all NFC hardware, faster time to market and greater flexibility. Now, with this source code release, Open NFC is the undisputed de facto NFC protocol stack solution in the industry.”

According to Martineau, INSIDE’s Open NFC protocol stack will be proposed to the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) as the reference implementation for Android to sit on top of the hardware abstraction layer, and the company expects to release an NFC chip simulator and board to developers by the end of the third quarter of 2010.

The Open NFC protocol stack brings proven, high quality, well-documented NFC software into the open source arena, providing a complete NFC middleware solution for mobile phones, embedded products and other devices. It benefits device makers, software developers as well as others in the mobile ecosystem in several ways, providing greater impetus to implement NFC solutions across a broad range of consumer products.

Open NFC supports the trend toward open platforms in the mobile industry, and INSIDE welcomes contributions from the developer community.

Open NFC supports several levels of functionality, from low-level RF control to high-level NFC Forum tag handling, peer-to-peer communications as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi pairing, interactions with single-wire protocol SIMs and other secure elements and compatibility with smart cards and RFID tags based on Felica, Mifare and ISO 14443 standards.

About INSIDE Contactless

INSIDE Contactless leads the market in open-standard contactless innovation. The company has delivered more than 350 million contactless platforms worldwide, and its contactless payment and Near Field Communication (NFC) solutions power the next generation of payment, transit, identity and access control applications. INSIDE’s work in contactless standards and its 65 families of patents, including essential NFC patents, play a leading role in establishing industry direction. INSIDE is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices in Paris, Shanghai, Singapore, Warsaw, Seoul, and San Francisco. For more information, please visit http://www.insidecontactless.com.

Contacts

For INSIDE Contactless:
Patrick Corman
Corman Communications, LLC
(650) 326-9648
patrick@cormancom.com
http://www.cormancom.com

INSIDE company contact:
Geraldine Sauniere
Marcom Director
+33 (0) 4 42 39 33 01
gsauniere@insidefr.com