China Debuts Next-Gen 'Super SIM'

China Mobile has officially revealed it a "super SIM card," with big hardware upgrades from a traditional physical card, including a 32-bit RISC-V processor core clocked at 120MHz.  

Based on the CC2560A single-chip device from Texas Instruments, this card represents a substantial advancement in physical SIM card technology. The card also offers 2.5MB of flash storage, ten times the capacity of a standard physical SIM and twice that of the cards usually used in Internet of Things (IoT) devices. 

Double the power 

The inclusion of the RISC-V CPU is a big point-of-difference, enabling communication speeds up to ten times faster than previous generation physical SIM cards, doubling the raw compute power, and with algorithm performance set to be twice as efficient. 

China Mobile also claims that the card has additional security measures implemented at the hardware level, with over 100 hardening techniques such as bus encryption, side-channel defence, signal masking, and physical anti-cloning capabilities. 

Applications & connectivity 

China Mobile intends to deploy this ‘super SIM’ card in its IoT applications that prioritize resilience and advanced functionalities. Other potential use-cases include digital ID cards, smart key systems, access control hardware, and digital payment services. 

The card also supports an expanded connectivity option, including the traditional 7816 SIM plus SWP, QSPI, SPI, I2C, and UART interfaces. This enhances communication with various devices, such as radios, storage chips, biometric sensors, and more. 

RISC factor  

Some important context to this announcement is that China's adoption of the RISC-V standard has attracted criticism from the United States due to national security concerns. The architecture of RISC-V allows anyone, including Chinese companies, to design their own implementations, raising concerns among US lawmakers regarding the ability to control advanced chip exports to China. 

Despite these concerns, super SIM cards are gaining traction in China. Last year, the People's Bank of China introduced new models with digital wallet functions and NFC support for digital ID scans.  

Power is not enough

However, hardware power is not really the deciding factor in terms of commercial viability. The ‘virtual’ software-based eSIMs streamlines device management and deployment due to their remote provisioning capabilities, entirely eliminating the need for physical SIM card swapping. Regardless of how power a physical SIM card is, remote management simplifies logistics and reduces costs, making eSIMs a more efficient and scalable solution for businesses with large fleets of devices or international operations.  

To learn more about both physical and embedded SIM options for your business, contact us here at 1GLOBAL.