Introduction to Smart Card
A quick tour into the smart-card technology world
The smart card is an expression of technological progress. Nowadays we use a card to communicate, buy or access to different services.
A smart card is a plastic card with a memory or microprocessor chip inserted in it.
The microprocessor card is exactly a computer, because like it has a CPU, a memory for the operating system (ROM), a main memory (RAM) and an EEPROM on which custom applications are generally allocated, exactly like all those tools and programs you load on PC.
It is a computer in your pocket, or in your mobile.
A memory card is a card simpler than the precedent one, in fact it has only a memory to load data.
To communicate with a card you need an interface that may be a reader or a mobile, by which send commands (regulated by Standard ISO) to read or write.
A smart card is able to process data not only storing information, thanks to more complex Operating System in the ROM. The trend is to increase size of memory (EEPROM), think to 128K, 256K and to make more complex and rich OS.
In these years another type of communication has grown up, it is in Radio Frequency. The card that supports it is the contactless one. It's a card with a microprocessor and instead of a physical contact (the golden area) it has an antenna inside the plastic body. Besides, a combi card enables both types of communication.
Security in a smart card is expressed in:
A smart card is a plastic card with a memory or microprocessor chip inserted in it.
The microprocessor card is exactly a computer, because like it has a CPU, a memory for the operating system (ROM), a main memory (RAM) and an EEPROM on which custom applications are generally allocated, exactly like all those tools and programs you load on PC.
It is a computer in your pocket, or in your mobile.
A memory card is a card simpler than the precedent one, in fact it has only a memory to load data.
To communicate with a card you need an interface that may be a reader or a mobile, by which send commands (regulated by Standard ISO) to read or write.
A smart card is able to process data not only storing information, thanks to more complex Operating System in the ROM. The trend is to increase size of memory (EEPROM), think to 128K, 256K and to make more complex and rich OS.
In these years another type of communication has grown up, it is in Radio Frequency. The card that supports it is the contactless one. It's a card with a microprocessor and instead of a physical contact (the golden area) it has an antenna inside the plastic body. Besides, a combi card enables both types of communication.
Security in a smart card is expressed in:
- Tamper-resistant Chip
- data on card protected by a PIN in reading and/or writing
- advanced identification through biometrics
- Encryption of data.
- Banks.
- Medical applications.
- Identification.
- Entertainment.
- Telecommunications.
- Transportation.
- simplicity in use,
- data portability,
- security.
