Brussels, 18/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has authorised French aid to Altis Semiconductor, which will help to fund the creation of a research centre, "Hypersoc", to design and develop a new generation of smart cards. The aid will take the form of subsidies, to a total of 23.6 million EUR, paid for by the State and local authorities. Altis's activities, which currently employ 2,000, are based around the development, manufacture and sales and semi-conductor components...