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 with a production capacity of over 45,000 eight-inch diameter slices (silicon wafers) per month. The aid was examined in light of the Community framework for State aid to research and development. After its investigation, the Commission said that the aid would allow engineers to carry out more projects than would otherwise have been the case. It will also help to speed up research projects, in line with the pace of development of each generation of integrated circuit, as laid down by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS).