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Contact chip card

		INFO & KNOWLEGDE

The ISO/IEC 7816 standardize contact chip cards, which can be recognized by its golden contacts. Communication is done with an UART - new developments want to replace this by USB - but there is no standardization in this field.

formats

The ID 1 format (85,6 x 54 mm) is from the ISO 7810, where a embossed magnetic stripe card is defined as ID-card. First in ISO 7816-2 there are positions for the contacts of a chip specified.

For applications where smart cards has to be inserted seldom or once, like in mobiles, GSM specified the ID-000 format (25 x 15 mm). In the middle ther ist ID-00 defined. These 3 formats, can be conveyed into another by punching the card body. Because of minituarization of mobiles, there are also smaller formats suggested, the Mini-UICC (15 x 12 mm), which isn't much bigger than the contact area of the chip. Of course ther are also special formats - like USB-sticks. Such sticks are card and reader in one device, there are also sticks, where an ID-000 can be inserted. Mini-VISA is an own format (65,5 x 40 mm)

smart card formats

	ID-1	ID-00	ID-000
dimensions	85.6mm x 54mm	66mm x 33mm	25mm x 15mm
angle	3.18mm	3.18mm	1mm
thickness	0.76mm	0.76mm	0.76mm

Card materials

The most used material for the card body is still PVC (Polyvinylchlorid). Because of its simple handling in production and its characteristics PVC is the most suitable material covering the high requirements of a card. But because of its unfavourable environmental properties, more and more other materials are used, ABS (Acrylnitril-Butadien-Styrol), PC (Polycarbonat) and PET (Polyethylenterephtalat). But all of these have different worse characteristics for further processing like print, embossing, hologram, magnetic stripe. You have to consider this fact when cards are produced.

contacts

contact	function	contact	function
C1	VCC - voltage	C5	GND
C2	RST - reset	C6	Vpp - EEPROM-programming voltage (no longer used)
C3	CLK - clock	C7	I/O - communication
C4	RFU	C8	RFU

electrical characteristics

The 6 or 8 contacs of an ISO IEC 7816-2 chipcard are used for communication, clock and voltage supply. First the voltage was only 5 Volt (Class A) - especially for mobile phones there were introduced lower voltages: 3 Volt (Class B) and 1,8 Volt (Class C). These chipcards must not be damaged by higher voltages, the algorithm of choosing the voltage by the terminal is standardized (basically "try and error" starting with the lowest voltage). In the future there will be an additional voltage of 1,2 Volt.

parts of a chip card

A smart card consists of a CPU and various memory types RAM, ROM and EEPROM (electrical erasable read only memory). Additionally there can be logical functions for reasons of security or performance integrated in hardware: UART or USB for communication, a MMU (memory management unit) for hardware-supported memory administration, which is a firewall for the secret data (os, keys) die die Funktion einer Firewall zum Schutz der geheimen Daten (Betriebssystem, Schlüssel) against loaded code, random number generators, various detectors and crypto-coprocessors and java accelerators for example

Smart Cards with crypto-coprocessors are often called as cryptocards - the Infineon SLE66CX160S chip has a 1100-bit-crypto-coprozessor with 700 B RAM and reaches following performance data.

cryptocard - performance

operation	modulus	exponent	execution time 5 MHz	execution time 15 MHz
RSA sign/decrypt	1024 bit	1024 bit	820 ms	273 ms
RSA verify/encrypt	1024 bit	16 bit	20 ms	7 ms
DSA sign	1024 bit	160 bit	290 ms	97 ms
DSA verifiy	1024 bit	160 bit	360 ms	120 ms
EC-GDSA sign	160 bit	160 bit	260 ms	87 ms
EC-GDSA verifiy	160 bit	160 bit	550 ms	183 ms

Smart Cards & Token Here you can find processor chip cards (smart cards) as well as memory chip cards and contactless cards. Smart cards may also be an USB-stick. Chip and reader are merged into one transportable device.

Linktipps

	http://www.faqs.org/faqs/technology/smartcards/faq/
	Smart Card Handbook Rankl/Effing at Amazon

Cryptoshop Tipps

Handbuch der Chipkarten Rankl/Effing at Amazon
This book provides an overview in the field of chipcards, but is very detailed. It describes basics like electrical and physical characteristics, security techniques, operating systems and commands.

Contactless chip card

Smart Card operating systems

Smart Card communication

Answer to Reset - Basics

Security techniques

Card elements and security features

Smart Card applications

@Quick

Austrian Citizen Card

Digital Signature - in brief