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Smart Card

		INFO & KNOWLEGDE

You can differentiate memory chip cards from processor chip cards. The term "Smart Card" means a processor smart card. In view of the physical interface you see contact and contactless cards. The standardization is done in Europe by CEN.



	chipcard-family

Contact chip card The ISO 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.

Contactless chip card Contactless cards are standardized in ISO 10536 (close coupling), ISO 14443 (proximity) or 15693 (vicinity). But there are also proprietary solutions. Of course there are Hybrid and Dual Interface Cards.

Chip card terms

	ICC: means a chip card in the standards (integrated circuit card)
	IFD: means a chip card terminal (interface device)
	CHV: means the criteria which is used for holder authentication of cards - usually the PIN but can be also a fingerprint (card holder verification)

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.

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.
	RFID Handbook of Klaus Finkenzeller at Amazon This handbook provides an overview over the RFID field, especially physical basics and a detailed description of this technology.

Contact chip card

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