Geneva, Switzerland: Pick a card, any smart card. That could be the motto for a single-chip microcontroller solution targeting PC-integrated and free-standing smart-card applications. The MCU is the fruit of a development partnership between ST Microelectronics and digital security and smart-card reader company Gemalto.

The new ST7GEM is a secure MCU in ST's ST7 family, pre-programmed with smart-card interface software from Gemalto. All it needs is the addition of a few passive external components to become a complete embedded smart-card reader solution.