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Date Posted: 09:52:57 02/11/03 Tue
Author: Founded in 1982, Arcom http://www.teamcard.co.uk
Subject:
In reply to: 11/02/2003for national sports body membershipTeamcard 's message, "English rugby fans to carry smart cardsThe world's firstsmart card based scheme" on 09:35:54 02/11/03 Tue

Founded in 1982, Arcom has grown to become one of the leading suppliers of embedded computer and communications processors.


Arcom’s embedded software development and support capabilities are second-to-none in the industry. Our engineering and support teams in Kansas City and Cambridge, England have an enormous depth of experience and knowledge in the field of embedded operating systems, communications protocols, and system design. We pride ourselves on being able to provide comprehensive development tools and excellent support to our OEM customers as they bring their products to the market.


Development Kits - we lead the embedded market with our strategy for new product introduction based on the 'blue-box' development kits. By combining new hardware solutions with the leading embedded operating systems we offer our customers a complete and rapid application development environment.

Embedded Boards - our range of embedded processor boards, PC/104 I/O modules, ISAbus and PCI add-on cards are all designed and manufactured by Arcom. This gives our customers fast and easy access to the highest level of technical support. All products are supported by a clearly defined life cycle and a commitment for long term availability.

Packaged Systems - we also recognize that customers need products to ease the integration of our embedded boards. Arcom's design team includes mechanical engineers who have developed a number of off the shelf enclosure solutions for stand alone and rack mounted systems.

Pervasive Solutions - since 1992, we have been actively involved in the integration and deployment of data acquisitions systems for the process control markets. Working with our key technology partners we now offer products and expertise to provide guaranteed data delivery from your field devices straight into your enterprise level applications.

Design Services - we understand the drive to cost reduce products for high volume applications and to combine this with a 'complete technical solution'. We accept contracts to produce bespoke solutions which focus on the design of dedicated hardware, developing optimized operating system configurations or even complete packaged system solutions.

Through a focused approach to product design and international marketing, backed by competent technical support, Arcom has more than doubled its customer base in the past two years to close to 1500 clients. Approximately half our sales are now achieved outside our home territories of the USA and UK, reflecting the international nature of our development, support and marketing teams.

Arcom is a subsidiary of Spectris plc, the precision instrumentation and controls company.
Visit the web sites of these other Spectris companies.

Our business processes are accredited to the international QA standard ISO 9001 and our products hold all relevant certification.
http://www.arcomcontrols.com/applications/stories/Scotcomms.htm


Scotcomms score with Arcom
Scotcomms Technology Group, (http://www.scotcomms.co.uk), based in St. Andrews, Scotland was formed in 1993 to offer a wide range of card based transaction services to serve the needs of 'closed loop users’. These are defined as groups of people who have a common physical location combined with a common interest and who can benefit from being linked using smartcard technology. Teamcard, (http://www.teamcard.co.uk) was formed as a division of Scotcomms in 1996 to specifically address the large spectator sports sector using these pioneering multifunction smart card solutions.
TeamCard system was established to allow supporters of major sports teams to lower the cost of support by accumulating added value TeamCard points through spending money at local retailers. Subsequently, these points could be redeemed as season tickets or payments in the club shop or bar. In addition to the loyalty function on the card, it also acts as an electronic season ticket which led to the requirement for an embedded processor as the core of the turnstile entry devices.


Scotcomms first proposed, and finally won the contract to install and offer the benefits of the system to the Bolton Wanderers Football Club. The system architecture provided a link from smartcard readers located at each of the entrance gates to the back office TeamCard system. It is TeamCard who manage and administer the network and back office application on behalf of the sports club. The club supporters details and attendance record are maintained on the smartcard and uploaded via an Ethernet network to the central database (a standard Windows based PC). To implement this application Scotcomms needed a simple embedded processor which could readily support the serial input from the Gemplus Smartcard reader, offered a parallel interface for some LEDs (to instruct the gate operator) and included an Ethernet port. Furthermore, given the project time scale, it was essential that it was pre-configured with an operating system, a Flash based filing system and a TCP/IP stack. Scotcomms' Technical Director, Dave Robb said they searched the web and reviewed several hardware solutions. Most were too costly or did not offer the software features.


Finally they decided to buy an Arcom MERLIN board Development Kit which was based on the Intel 386EX and which offered all the features they required. Dave Robb further stated that they needed to write the application quickly and for the communications to be reliable and the flash filing system to be robust even in the event of power interruptions. The combination of Borland’s compiler tools, the Datalight ROM-DOS operating system and integrated TCP/IP stack made it very easy to build up the application. By using a network, the smartcard can easily be checked at each game for transactions, game attendance and to check for copied or rejected cards. Dave Robb says that they implemented the software in three months with only a handful of calls to Arcom for technical support. The system is now installed and operational at Bolton Wanderers stadium and will soon be installed at the London stadium of Crystal Palace.

The MERLIN is one of the first low cost general purpose hardware products on the market to offer an operating system and communications stack as standard.

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Replies:

  • TEAMCARD SMART CARD SOLUTIONS KICK OFF IN UK -- http://www.marketsmart.com.au/reports/march2001.pdf Feb to March 2001, 10:20:33 02/11/03 Tue
  • LondonPoliceMillwall Football Clubsecurity measuresScotland Yard -- think it's a beautyThe smart card ticketing and loyalty system was designed and developed by Teamcard, 11:06:51 02/11/03 Tue
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