Talking about the development of smart card technology and market trends

With the advancement of technology, the types of cards are increasing and the functions are becoming more and more perfect. From the magnetic stripe card to the most advanced smart card on the market, it provides more and more convenient life. Although the proximity card plays an important role in the access control market, when the market issues related to smart cards are not covered, the proximity card will not be included. Therefore, in this topic, the proximity card will not be included in the discussion.

In the 1980s, magnetic stripe cards were widely accepted because of their low cost, ease of use, and ease of portability. In addition to access control, there are also financial cards used in banks, credit cards, and membership cards for clubs. . However, the disadvantage of magnetic stripe cards being easy to be recorded and copied makes people think about the possibility of improved security. Therefore, when the chip card (smart card) appeared on the market in the 1990s, it attracted the attention of various manufacturers due to its high security. However, the price of the card is very high. According to the function and storage capacity, the price of a chip card is about 1.8~10 yuan. It is about 0.3 yuan compared with the magnetic strip card. The price is 6~30. Times.

What is a smart card?

The biggest difference between the appearance of the smart card and the current proximity card and magnetic stripe card is that there is an "IC chip" on the card. Therefore, the smart card was also called IC card in the early stage, but because the name is easily confused with the IC card in the PC industry, It was gradually renamed "chip card". In addition to the storage memory function of a general card, the data stored in the card can be read or rewritten, and this function can make the card more widely used, for example, an access card, a credit card, a financial card or a calling card. When all the data is stored in it, as long as one card can travel all over the world, the word "smart card" is used.

Broadly speaking, a chip card consists of a memory card and a CPU card. Memory card is the earliest chip card. It does not have a microprocessor. It only has stored data and fixed and simple logic functions. It can't perform complex mathematical operations. In addition, its data security is poor, mostly used. Where security requirements are low, such as calling cards, stored value cards, or electronic toll collection (ETC). The CPU card has a built-in microprocessor in the chip. Just like the CPU of a computer, in addition to storing data, it can perform more complicated mathematical operations, such as increasing or decreasing the amount of money, encrypting and decrypting, etc., so that the card functions are diversified and the security is improved. Sex, in today's developed network and e-commerce is becoming more and more popular, bringing another solution for the security of online transactions.

However, the narrow chip card, in addition to the above functions, must also comply with ISO standards. For example, contact cards must conform to the standards set by ISO 7816. Non-contact cards must meet the standards set by ISO 14443 to be called smart cards. .

Smart card classification

Smart cards are generally divided into contact or non-contact types on the market. A contact smart card must actually touch the card reader, and the direct contact with the card reader improves the security of the data in the chip. The storage capacity is higher than that of the non-contact chip, and the contact chip is easier to obtain. Therefore, the cost is lower than that of the contactless card, but frequent use will reduce the service life. The contactless smart card can use the built-in sensing antenna to enable the card reader to read the card data inductively. The time required for reading the card is shorter than that of the contact type. It is convenient to use, because it does not need to be touched, so the service life is shorter. High, but less secure than contact cards. Readers can refer to Table 1 for specific understanding of the differences between the two.

Table 1 Comparison of contact chip and non-contact chip

However, there are currently many contact cards on the market, and there are three reasons for this. One is that non-contact cards make people have doubts about repeated reading, the second is lower security, and the third is too high cost. In general, the card reader is inductively read. When the card is close to the card reading range, the card reader will have an action, which will cause people to have repeated reading doubts. Wang Zongxin, business manager of the corporate and financial services department of Gemplus Taiwan Branch, said Such doubts are actually unnecessary. Because the card reader has a detection function, it must detect the "in" and "out" actions to read the data. Take the MRT system as an example. After that, if the outbound action is not sensed, the card reader will only sense and not respond to the deduction.

As for security issues, the current ISO 14443 standard for contactless cards specifies Type A and Type B. The difference between the two is in the transmission rate, and the Type A transmission rate is four times that of Type B. TypeA uses MIFARE developed by Philips, which is currently widely used; TypeB uses ST microprocessor. The early use of MIFARE1 is a contactless memory card with a memory capacity of only 1KB. There is no special protection program. With the development of technology, the technology is upgraded to Mifare+ and MifarePro, except for the contact and non-contact combi card. In addition, 3DES protection measures are provided. It is understood that Philips' upcoming MifareProx will use the more secure RSA mathematical calculations for digital authentication to provide higher security for contactless smart cards. Since ST microprocessor was developed late, it has been targeting the high-end market since its launch, and has the same function as Mifare's combi card, but there is no card that provides mere memory.

On the other hand, in terms of cost, on the one hand, because of the high production cost of the chip, if the memory card with the memory capacity (1 kbit) is also compared, the non-contact card is twice as high as the contact type. In addition, the non-contact technical level is higher than that of the contact type, so it is difficult to reduce the price of the card when the price cannot be determined. However, vendors believe that contact cards are not necessarily cheaper if they are added to future repair costs and replacement costs.

In addition, some manufacturers said that smart cards must use electricity to read data, and card readers are the source of their power. As a result, how non-contact cards can provide stable power to read card data will also affect their market. Popularization speed.

Smart card features
Chen Zhiqiang, marketing marketing manager of ADC, believes that the storage capacity is large and programmable as the biggest feature of smart cards. Elid's Dr. Wong further explained that the smart card has a secret code function, which ensures the security of the card, and its 8kbit storage capacity increases its functionality.

1. High security In general, the card setting mechanism is one number per card. If two cards are the same number, one is a fake card. This is the most basic anti-counterfeiting mechanism. Then there is Protected memory technology, which uses encryption technology to manage/limit the data written. Cryptographic technology can simultaneously compare and write and read both passwords, which improves the security of card data.

Compared with the magnetic stripe card, the chip card cannot be copied and recorded. If someone forces the chip to be removed, the card will no longer function when the chip is removed, and the microprocessor contained in the chip has Software or hardware data protection measures, in order to obtain the data in the chip, must go through the decryption process, and it is more difficult to improve the forgery.

2. Large capacity The general induction card capacity is about 100bit, while the smart card can reach 8kbit, and more data can be stored.

3. Erasable The smart card can be read, written and memorized by the microprocessor in the chip to improve the functionality of the card.

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