Using some database principles to improve cooperation in multi-application smart cards

Smart cards evolve today at the rate of non-embedded computing. If twenty years were necessary, to integrate smart cards into the database principles, it took less than five years to embed Java. Emerging applications, such as loyalty ones, induce changes in smart card concepts. These applications are characterized by, the gathering of several partners who bring each one of their application part in order to offer global services to mobile users. Smart cards, which have been used as data servers for a long time, become now able to embed and run several collaborative applications. These applications lead to new requirements in embedded software lifecycle. It is indeed necessary for each partner to update his part without breaking the whole application. Moreover it is necessary to allow the evolution of the cooperation scheme (modifications of resource sharing or arrival of new partners). Current smart cards models, databases or multi-applications cards, can not take these new needs fully into account. In this article, we show how the database principles, coupled to open smart card models, can however help to reach that goal