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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday February 22 2018, @12:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the too-many-iAcronyms dept.

ARM wants mobile or IoT devices to include a tiny integrated SIM card:

Every millimeter of space matters when you're trying to build increasingly complex electronics into increasingly tiny packages, and the relatively spacious SIM card has long been an area of frustration for hardware manufacturers. Now, the chip design company ARM may have an answer: an integrated component called an iSIM that's built into the same chip as the processor.

ARM says the iSIM will take up a "fraction of a millimeter squared," whereas the current SIM standard — Nano SIMs — are about 12.3 x 8.8mm in size, not including the hardware usually needed to house them. Not only will that save space, but ARM says it'll more importantly save on costs, too: instead of paying "tens of cents" per card, manufacturers will be paying single-digital cents.

Also at CNET, Tom's Hardware, and Wccftech.

Related: Infineon Demos a 1.65 mm^2 eSIM Chip


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  • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday February 22 2018, @02:17PM (3 children)

    by TheRaven (270) on Thursday February 22 2018, @02:17PM (#641795) Journal

    SIMs exist from back in the days of car phones. The idea was that you'd be buy a credit-card sized thing with a SIM on it and, when you rented a car with a carphone, be able to insert the card and have it work with your account. It's several decades since this model existed, yet we still use physical SIM chips to port phone numbers between phones. This is not really needed and there's a standard, eSIM, for getting rid of it. eSIM lets you have a programmable SIM in the device, so that you can switch between providers with a simple software update. Apple uses this as the 'Apple SIM' in their iOS devices, in addition to the removable SIM, so that you can easily get a local short-term contract when travelling - it's much easier to just go to the SIM app and select from a variety of providers than it is to get a physical SIM from a vending machine at an airport and hope that it's a good deal and not something designed to fleece tourists, or to wait until you can get to a mobile phone shop.

    The difference with the iSIM is that it's a tiny bit of circuitry embedded on a small SoC, rather than a separate chip.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Dr Spin on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:01PM (2 children)

    by Dr Spin (5239) on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:01PM (#641978)

    get a physical SIM from a vending machine at an airport

    You get them from hawkers for a dollar in most third world countries, and you don't give him the dollar till it works. In Europe, the network gives you one free if you buy EUR10 credit. In fact, they shove them into your hands whether you want them or not, like AOL CDs, in a lot of places.

    I would not even think about buying a phone if I could not switch SIMs. WHat if I want to lend the phone to one of my kids?

    What if I want to put in the SIM I use to register for web sites that I KNOW will spam me?

    Sometimes I want to put the SIM in my old Nokia cos I don't want a huge smart phone in my clothing.

    Sometimes I want to put someone else's SIM in my phone to see if the phone or the SIM is faulty.

    Non-removable SIMs are in the same league as non-removable batteries: A wonderful tool for shafting the customer.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @10:09AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @10:09AM (#642297)

      Non-removable SIMs are in the same league as non-removable batteries: A wonderful tool for shafting the customer.

      Not quite. Your phone number is not tied to the battery, and your new phone wants a different voltage anyway, so you can't move your old battery over.

      Most people don't care about replacing the battery. They want an excuse to buy the new phone anyway. But most people will at some point be in the situation of wanting to move their phone number to a different phone for one reason or another.

    • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday February 26 2018, @09:12AM

      by TheRaven (270) on Monday February 26 2018, @09:12AM (#643837) Journal
      You are conflating swapping a physical chip and swapping the data contained on said chip. Non-removable, programmable, SIMs are no different from non-removable flash drives: you can't pull them out and swap them, but that doesn't mean that you can't move the data. Here's another use case: you lose your phone. Today, you have to cancel the SIM and wait for a new one to be posted out to you. With a programmable SIM, you just log into your account from the new device and have the old SIM invalidated and download new credentials to go on the new device's SIM.
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