Nowadays Apple dictates design in IT world. You may think that I will begin to compare many other smartphones with iPhone but I don’t. There is information from The Verge that Motorola and RIM will produce 4FF nano-Sim cards.
New 4FF nano-Sim will include the same outline and contacts as it is on nano- Sim card from Apple. But there will be a notch on the edge that helps you to take the Sim card out the phone which you can’t find in Apple Sim card. Cupertino company uses a tray but Motorola and RIM don’t want to do that and add notch to start mechanism that will take Sim card out.
Cupertino company rejected the possibility of using a notch because of its unprofitable near future.
Also you might heard that such IT giants as Nokia, was anger at Apple because of its nano-Sim card design in iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.
The main reason of misunderstanding is that Nokia doesn’t want to allow Apple company to dictate which Sim card should be. With big popularity of iGadgets customers may like it and get stuck on it which will change today’s micro-Sim generation.
Apple have recently made minor changes to its nano-SIM layout which have been exposed recently. SIM card producer Giesecke & Devrient introduced Apple’s brand new nano-SIM design with a bit modified sizes at the CTIA trade event in New Orleans.
Apple’s changed design included a tiny bit of plastic to the edges of the electrical contacts. That made the altered nano-SIM card too long to be pushed lengthwise into a current micro-SIM slot.
And now new design of Sim card was proposed by Motorola and RIM. I don’t know if Apple accept this design but we will find out about that at ETSI meeting on May 31, 2012.
Will Apple accept new 4FF Sim card design at the meeting, or not? What do you thing. Write a comment.
Re:fletsunlockiphon
CUT YOUR OWN NANO SIM!
Ever wanted know how to make a nano SIM on your own? Here is how!
As the new iPhone 5 is about to be released, I just would like to share an updated cutting template that you can use to cut your existing SIM card to fit into a new iPhone that requires a new Nano-SIM.
Just print the cutting template (use the PDF file) and try to cut your existing SIM card to the right size.
A good cutter, aStanley knife or sharp scissors should do the job.
As the new Nano SIM (aka 4FF) is slightly thinner (0,67 mm instead of 0,76 mm) than the other SIM standards, you may have to sand the back side to make the card fit into your new phone.
BTW: I absolutely make no warranties that it works for you – but trust me that this worked fine for me cutting my Mini-SIM down to a Micro-SIM.
NOTE: As both the Micro SIM and the Nano SIM only have room for 2 x 3 vertical pads on the vertical edges please make sure that the SIM your are trying to cut does not have 2 x 4 pads. Cutting through the metallic contacts would destroy your SIM card… You should be fine if your SIM looks like on the picture below.
UPDATE: I hear from two sources in the telco industry that the SIM profile for Nano-SIMs (in layman’s terms: the stuff that the operator stores on the SIM card) may not be compatible with older SIM types. Well – this is a possibility but does not necessarily mean that an old SIM wouldn’t work with an iPhone 5. Someone has to try and find out. We will keep you updated!
UPDATE 2 (21.09.2012): As the new iPhone 5 has now hit the market we can positively confirm that you can (re-)use your existing SIM. Just cut it to the right size and you’ll be fine. It also seem that minimal difference in thickness does not make a difference – the SIM tray works without a problem even without sanding off the extra 0.1 mm on the back. An Australian MVNO (amaysim.com.au) even offers the cutting as a service until they receive a batch of Nano SIMs. I guess that’s customer service at its best!
SUMMARY: Get your iPhone 5 and cut your own Nano SIM – and you’ll be fine!
Download Link for the PDF: nanosim-pdf
Video tutorial:
Note: If you want to do your own research and can digest some of the harder stuff have a look at the official standards paper labeled ETSI TS 102 221 V11.0.0 (2012-06)
As the new iPhone 5 is about to be released, I just would like to share an updated cutting template that you can use to cut your existing SIM card to fit into a new iPhone that requires a new Nano-SIM.
Just print the cutting template (use the PDF file) and try to cut your existing SIM card to the right size.
A good cutter, aStanley knife or sharp scissors should do the job.
As the new Nano SIM (aka 4FF) is slightly thinner (0,67 mm instead of 0,76 mm) than the other SIM standards, you may have to sand the back side to make the card fit into your new phone.
BTW: I absolutely make no warranties that it works for you – but trust me that this worked fine for me cutting my Mini-SIM down to a Micro-SIM.
NOTE: As both the Micro SIM and the Nano SIM only have room for 2 x 3 vertical pads on the vertical edges please make sure that the SIM your are trying to cut does not have 2 x 4 pads. Cutting through the metallic contacts would destroy your SIM card… You should be fine if your SIM looks like on the picture below.
UPDATE: I hear from two sources in the telco industry that the SIM profile for Nano-SIMs (in layman’s terms: the stuff that the operator stores on the SIM card) may not be compatible with older SIM types. Well – this is a possibility but does not necessarily mean that an old SIM wouldn’t work with an iPhone 5. Someone has to try and find out. We will keep you updated!
UPDATE 2 (21.09.2012): As the new iPhone 5 has now hit the market we can positively confirm that you can (re-)use your existing SIM. Just cut it to the right size and you’ll be fine. It also seem that minimal difference in thickness does not make a difference – the SIM tray works without a problem even without sanding off the extra 0.1 mm on the back. An Australian MVNO (amaysim.com.au) even offers the cutting as a service until they receive a batch of Nano SIMs. I guess that’s customer service at its best!
SUMMARY: Get your iPhone 5 and cut your own Nano SIM – and you’ll be fine!
Download Link for the PDF: nanosim-pdf
Video tutorial:
Note: If you want to do your own research and can digest some of the harder stuff have a look at the official standards paper labeled ETSI TS 102 221 V11.0.0 (2012-06)
All you need to know about nano SIMs - before they are EXTERMINATED
The chip inside the iPhone 5
Posted in Mobile, 18th September 2012 11:19 GMT
Apple's iPhone 5 uses a nano SIM, the smallest SIM ever designed and, quite possibly, the last SIM we'll see in any mobile telephone.
The nano SIM used in the new smartphone is tiny and its pattern of electrical contacts are about two thirds the size of the original SIM. It's almost too small to hold and certainly small enough to lose in a pocket, but despite the diminutive size its basic functionality remains unchanged: hosting encryption electronics and serial communications at 9,600 baud.
The GSM standard mandates a removable SIM, and consumer devices can conform to one of four different form factors [PDF, dry, really dry]. The first is a credit-card-sized monster. The second is the traditional SIM we've come to know. The third form factor (3FF) retains the same contact pattern as the first two so one can just trim down an existing SIM, but the fourth - the nano SIM - makes these DIY jobs a lot more challenging (although not impossible) as it changes the layout and positioning of the connections.
A Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) contains a cryptographic chip, but critically it also stores a copy of the unique subscriber key, the other copy being held in the network operator's authentication server (AuC). During the GSM authentication a random number is encrypted using that key and must be decrypted by the phone to prove the subscriber is genuine. On 3G networks the process is also reversed to mitigate against man-in-the-middle attacks, and it's notable that while the encryption on GSM calls has been compromised (once or twice) the authentication remains secure.
The chips holding the key, and doing the cryptography, are suspended in space, glued to the back of the SIM's metal contacts. The silicon dies are small, but it's the air space around them which has hitherto prevented SIMs from getting thinner. The nano SIM is slimmer, thanks to thinner chips and more precise engineering, so the nano SIM is only .67mm thick.
It's also exempted it from the physical flexibility requirements of the SIM specification, which SIMs inherited largely from the credit card specification (ISO 7816). Nano SIMs will snap more easily than their larger contemporaries, but given the size that's not really important.
There are eight connections on all the SIM designs, although on both the traditional SIM and the mini SIM (3FF) the electrical ground connection (C5, see diagram) is generally extended down the middle. That's harder on the nano SIM because it has two connections in the middle (C4 and C8), although some designs stretch the ground pad out and more than a few don't bother with those two optional pads.
As the chips in a SIM shrank, manufacturers tried to extend the functionality many times, from optimistic GPS to accelerometers, and ultimately loads of memory - up to 4GB of flash storage hampered only by the impossibility of getting the data off the SIM in a reasonable timeframe.
SIMs communicate with the phone over a single wire (C7) using a serial protocol similar to RS232 running at 9,600 baud. Older readers will remember that as the Blue US Robotics Sportster, younger readers should just understand that this is really, really, slow - transferring the aforementioned 4GB would take more than a month.
So the manufacturers lobbied for, and got, an extension to the standard that allocated the two lowermost pins to create a USB connection for fast communications. But despite enthusiastic support, from France Telecom, high-capacity SIMs never took off, so the USB connection quickly became redundant and the two contacts are optional. On traditional and mini SIMs that means losing the two bottom connectors, on the nano SIM that removes the two central pads.
Also optional is pad C6, known as Vpp as it was used to carry the higher voltage needed for writing data to early chips. Vpp is redundant these days as the voltage used to run the SIM, Vcc supplied over C1, is good enough for programming, but C6 is now used for transferring data wirelessly over NFC if the Single Wire Protocol (SWP) is supported, enabling the SIM (even in nano form) to communicate direct with NFC radio hardware. This avoids the security implications of going through the handset.
Of the eight contacts, therefore, three are optional, but in most cases six pads will be visible. C1 is the supply voltage; C2 is the reset signal so the SIM knows when to start doing something; and C3 is the clock signal as the timing clock was left out of the SIM spec to keep the cost down. C5 is ground, often extended down the middle; C6 is the NFC SWP contact; and C7 is the serial communications connection that actually does the stuff one expects a SIM to do.
The SIM can't, realistically, get any smaller, but if the requirement to make it removable is dropped then the functionality could be fitted into a processor die in the form of a typical system-on-a-chip. Hardware-based security can be implemented on the package, as exemplified by ARM's TrustZone and Intel's Secure Element which provide comparable functionality without the need for a physical SIM.
Such a "soft SIM" would require a change to the GSM standard, to which all mobile phones in Europe are required to conform, but that change is already in progress having been proposed in 2010 by Apple.
Apple's interest isn't just in making the SIM even smaller: it also wants to wrest control of the secure store from the network operators whose ownership of the SIM would appear unassailable. The repeated paring away of the physical SIM might be technically driven, but its ultimate disappearance is a matter of politics and power rather than technical necessity. That's particularly irritating for those of us who've opted to have the iconic pattern permanently marked upon us, but it could have been much, much worse. ®
Ref:theregister.co.uk
The nano SIM used in the new smartphone is tiny and its pattern of electrical contacts are about two thirds the size of the original SIM. It's almost too small to hold and certainly small enough to lose in a pocket, but despite the diminutive size its basic functionality remains unchanged: hosting encryption electronics and serial communications at 9,600 baud.
The SIM and nano SIM in proportion
A Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) contains a cryptographic chip, but critically it also stores a copy of the unique subscriber key, the other copy being held in the network operator's authentication server (AuC). During the GSM authentication a random number is encrypted using that key and must be decrypted by the phone to prove the subscriber is genuine. On 3G networks the process is also reversed to mitigate against man-in-the-middle attacks, and it's notable that while the encryption on GSM calls has been compromised (once or twice) the authentication remains secure.
The chips holding the key, and doing the cryptography, are suspended in space, glued to the back of the SIM's metal contacts. The silicon dies are small, but it's the air space around them which has hitherto prevented SIMs from getting thinner. The nano SIM is slimmer, thanks to thinner chips and more precise engineering, so the nano SIM is only .67mm thick.
It's also exempted it from the physical flexibility requirements of the SIM specification, which SIMs inherited largely from the credit card specification (ISO 7816). Nano SIMs will snap more easily than their larger contemporaries, but given the size that's not really important.
Let's make a connection
Contacts on the nano SIM. C1-3 and C5-7 are compatible with previous SIMs.
Source: ETSI. Pads highlighted by The Reg
Source: ETSI. Pads highlighted by The Reg
As the chips in a SIM shrank, manufacturers tried to extend the functionality many times, from optimistic GPS to accelerometers, and ultimately loads of memory - up to 4GB of flash storage hampered only by the impossibility of getting the data off the SIM in a reasonable timeframe.
SIMs communicate with the phone over a single wire (C7) using a serial protocol similar to RS232 running at 9,600 baud. Older readers will remember that as the Blue US Robotics Sportster, younger readers should just understand that this is really, really, slow - transferring the aforementioned 4GB would take more than a month.
So the manufacturers lobbied for, and got, an extension to the standard that allocated the two lowermost pins to create a USB connection for fast communications. But despite enthusiastic support, from France Telecom, high-capacity SIMs never took off, so the USB connection quickly became redundant and the two contacts are optional. On traditional and mini SIMs that means losing the two bottom connectors, on the nano SIM that removes the two central pads.
Reg man Bill Ray proves his SIM credentials
with this tasteful tattoo
with this tasteful tattoo
Of the eight contacts, therefore, three are optional, but in most cases six pads will be visible. C1 is the supply voltage; C2 is the reset signal so the SIM knows when to start doing something; and C3 is the clock signal as the timing clock was left out of the SIM spec to keep the cost down. C5 is ground, often extended down the middle; C6 is the NFC SWP contact; and C7 is the serial communications connection that actually does the stuff one expects a SIM to do.
The SIM can't, realistically, get any smaller, but if the requirement to make it removable is dropped then the functionality could be fitted into a processor die in the form of a typical system-on-a-chip. Hardware-based security can be implemented on the package, as exemplified by ARM's TrustZone and Intel's Secure Element which provide comparable functionality without the need for a physical SIM.
Such a "soft SIM" would require a change to the GSM standard, to which all mobile phones in Europe are required to conform, but that change is already in progress having been proposed in 2010 by Apple.
Apple's interest isn't just in making the SIM even smaller: it also wants to wrest control of the secure store from the network operators whose ownership of the SIM would appear unassailable. The repeated paring away of the physical SIM might be technically driven, but its ultimate disappearance is a matter of politics and power rather than technical necessity. That's particularly irritating for those of us who've opted to have the iconic pattern permanently marked upon us, but it could have been much, much worse. ®
Ref:theregister.co.uk
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