Everything you wanted to know about Swipe Cards but were afraid to ask...

Confused with all the different card technologies, Read our Guide

Contact Smart Card: Contact smart cards have a small contact area, comprising several gold-plated contact pads, that are approx 1 cm square in dimensions. When inserted into a card reader, the chip makes contact with electrical connectors that can read information from the chip and then write information back.

Contactless Smart Card: Cards embedded with a small chip that communicates with the reader through RFID technology. These cards require only proximity to an card reader to complete transaction. They are often used when transactions must be processed quickly or convenient, such as on transport systems, where smart cards can be used without even removing them from a wallet.

Cryptographic Smart Card: Often used for single sign-on. Most advanced smart cards are equipped with specialized cryptographic hardware that let you use algorithms such as RSA and DSA on board.

Hitag: Operating at the frequency of 100 to 150kHz, HITAG was the first tag IC family on the market to support a highly sophisticated anti-collision feature, allowing several tags to be read simultaneously.

Java Card: Java Card refers to a technology that allows small Java-based applications (applets) to be run securely on smart cards. Java Card is the tiniest of Java targeted for embedded devices. Java Card gives the user ability to program the device and make them application specific. It is widely used in SIM cards (used in GSM mobile phones) and ATM cards.

Magnetic Stripe Card: A magnetic stripe card is a type of card capable of storing data by modifying the magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles on a band of magnetic material on the card. The magnetic stripe, sometimes called a magstripe, is read by physical contact by swiping past a reading head.

Mifare: A contactless smartcard, or proximity card, technology in the world with more than 500 million smart card chips and 5 million reader modules sold.

Proximity Card: A contactless integrated circuit devices used for security access control or payment systems. It can refer to the older 125 kHz devices or the newer 13.56 MHz contactless RFID cards, most commonly known as contactless smartcards.

Smart Card: A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC), is defined as any credit card-sized card with embedded integrated circuits which can process information.

What is a Smart Card?

A smart card resembles a credit card in size and shape, but inside it is completely different. The inside of a smart card usually contains an embedded microprocessor. The microprocessor is under a gold contact pad on one side of the card. Think of the microprocessor as replacing the usual magnetic stripe on a credit card or debit card.

Magnetic stripe technology remains in wide use in the United States. However, the data on the stripe can easily be read, written, deleted or changed with off-the-shelf equipment. Therefore, the stripe is really not the best place to store sensitive information. To protect the consumer, businesses in the U.S. have invested in extensive online mainframe-based computer networks for verification and processing. In Europe, such an infrastructure did not develop -- instead, the card carries the intelligence.

The microprocessor on the smart card is there for security. The host computer and card reader actually "talk" to the microprocessor. The microprocessor enforces access to the data on the card. If the host computer read and wrote the smart card's random access memory (RAM), it would be no different than a diskette.

Smarts cards may have up to 8 kB of RAM, 346 kB of ROM, 256 kilobytes of programmable ROM, and a 16-bit microprocessor. The smart card uses a serial interface and receives its power from external sources like a card reader.

The most common smart card applications include:

• Credit cards
• Electronic cash
• Computer security systems
• Wireless communication
• Loyalty systems
• Banking
• Satellite TV
• Government identification
• Secure Identity applications
• Healthcare applications
• Payment applications
• Telecommunications applications

Smart cards can be also used with a smart card reader attachment to a PC to authenticate a user. Web browsers also can use smart card technology to supplement Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for improved security of Internet transactions. Visa's Smart Card FAQ shows how online purchases work using a smart card and a PC equipped with a smart-card reader. Smart card readers can also be found in mobile phones and vending machines.

Two main categories of smart cards are manufactured:

Contactless chip cards (RFID)
Contact chip cards

Contact smart cards:

• SLE4442
• SLE5542
• SLE4428

Contactless Smart Cards:

• Mifare Ultralight
• Mifare 1k
• Mifare 4k
• Mifare DESFire

Smart Card Technology

There are two general categories of smart cards: contact and contactless.

A contact smart card must be inserted into a smart card reader with a direct connection to a conductive contact plate on the surface of the card. Transmission of commands, data, and card status takes place over these physical contact points.

A contactless card requires close proximity to a reader. Both the reader and the card have antennae and the two communicate using radio frequencies (RF) over this contactless signal. Most contactless cards also derive power for the internal chip from this electromagnetic signal. The range is typically one-half to three inches for non-battery-powered cards, ideal for applications such as building entry and payment that require a fast and secure card interface.

Additional categories of cards are dual-interface cards and hybrid cards. A hybrid card has two chips, one with a contact interface and one with a contactless interface. The two chips are not interconnected with each other. A dual-interface card has a single chip with both contact and contactless interfaces. With dual-interface cards, it is possible to access the same chip using either a contact or contactless interface with a very high level of security.

The chips used in all of these cards fall into two categories as well: microcontroller chips and memory chips. A memory chip is like a small floppy disk with optional security. Memory chips are less expensive than microcontrollers but with a corresponding decrease in data management security. Cards that use memory chips depend on the security of the card reader for processing and are ideal for situations that require minimum security.

A microcontroller chip can add, delete, and otherwise manipulate information in its memory. A microcontroller is like a tiny computer, with an input/output port, operating system and harddisk. Smart cards with an embedded microcontroller have the ability to store large amounts of data, carry out their own on-card functions (e.g., encryption and digital signatures) and interact with a smart card reader.