• Card Technology Technology Page

    Index

    • Memory cards
    • Smartcards
    • Contactless smartcards
    • Smartcard products and companies
    • Magnetic cards
    • Barcode

    Memory cards

    Memory cards are the simples type of smartcard. Memory cards only have some amount of memory inside the card and this memory can be normally read and written. There is normally nothing relly intelligne inside those cards. Typically the momory inside this kind of cards is EPROM, EEPROM or FLASH memory. This card type is very widely used as telehone cards (telecards). Many countries use a telecard system which is very close to the first smartcard telephone system in use in France.

      Technical information

      • National Semiconductor NM93C06/46 - serial EEPROM chips suitable for smartcard applications
      • What you need to know about electronic telecards (v.1.07 in HTML, v.1.07 in ASCII, v.1.18 in ASCII)

      Computer interfaces

      • Simple PC smartcard reader
      • Source code of small phonecard reading program
      • What you need to know about electronic telecards (v.1.07 in HTML, v.1.07 in ASCII, v.1.18 in ASCII)

      Information resource pages

      • Phonecard information archive in nic.funet.fi - mostly phonecard pictures
      • Stephane Bausson's web page - the author of What you need to know about electronic telecards info file
      • The Prepaid Phonecard Information Resource
      • World of Phonecards - international page for collectors of Phonecards with informative articles and up-to-date links

      Telecard articles

      • Electronic Telephone Cards: How to make your own! article in Phrack magazine, read also the second part of the article for sourcode and other interresting stuff. Other option to get files is to download the whole Prack magazine issue 48 which has also many other articles. Note: My e-mail address is mentioned in this article, but I have not written the article or any of the card emulation software. I have only written some part of the csrd reading program. On programs with this article contact Phrack Magazine instead of me because I can't help in the questions about this article. According some feedback this plan doesn't work any more (still has some informational value though).
      • Telephone cards used in Finland and their security - text in Finnish
      • The 2nd Generation Telecard better known as the ´T2G´ hacked - news flash
      • The Telecard Security News

    Smartcards

    Here you can find information on real smartcards which have a real microprocessor inside the card. There have been many different small microprocessors used inside smartcards including 8031/51 variants, PIC microcontrollers and some pecial microprocessors just designed for smartcard applications. Very many smartcards communicate using the protocols standardized in ISO 7816 standard.

      General information

      • A Frequently Asked Questions list (FAQ) for alt.technology.smartcards
      • Prepaid Smart Card Techniques - A Brief Introduction and Comparison
      • Smart card news by SJB Research

      Smartcard resource pages

      • CompInfo Smartcard Technology - large link collection on smartcard technology
      • Open Card Consortium - Java based smartcard specification
      • PC/SC Workgroup - Integrating PC's and Smart Cards, site includes some specifications
      • Smart Card Forum - founded to accelerate the widespread acceptance of multiple application smart card technology
      • Smartcard Develloper Association - information, hardware, software
      • Smart Card Resource Center
      • Smartcard security information page
      • Smart Cards & Systems newsletter
      • The Smart Card Cyber Show

      Satellite TV smartcards

      • How to connect a PC to a Videocrypt decoder and Videocrypt decoder emulator for DOS - arj compressed file
      • Using PC to emulate videocrypt smartcard
      • Satellite TV scrabler smartcard links - collected by tomi Engdahl

      Technical specs

      • ISO7816 asynchronous smartcard information
      • Secure Electronic Transactions Draft - information on SET standard

      Computer interfaces

      • Dumb Mouse Universal Chipcard Reader
      • SmartCard Edit/Read/Write Software - for almost any kind of smartcard

      Smartcard articles

      • SDA Cloned Digital GSM Cellphones - The Smartcard Developer Association (SDA) and two U.C. Berkeley researchers discovered that digital GSM cellphones are susceptible to cloning
      • Twenty Years On and the Smartcard Remains Unbeaten - smartcard technology has been here for 20 years
      • Tamper Resistance - a Cautionary Note - description of a number of attacks on smartcard systems that designers of secure systems should consider, also in postscipt format

    Contactless smartcards

    • Contactless & Dual-interface Chips Meeting the concerns of the Financial Sector - information on contactless smartcards technology
    • Contactless Smartcards in Transportation
    • The Contactless Smart Card Circuit That You Never Thought Possible

    Smartcard products and companies

    • Aladdin Smartcard Environment
    • BasicCard - a BASIC programmable Smartcard
    • BUSCOM - from Finland
    • eCash Technologies
    • Gemplus
    • GIS Smart Card Products - terminals, operating systems and design
    • Hevnet - smart cards and programmers in Finland
    • Motorola's Smart Information Transfer Division
    • On Track Innovations Ltd. - contactless smartcard products
    • PIC Wafer Card - same size as a standard ISO cards but contain a PIC 16C84
    • Setec - from Finland
    • SGS-Thomson Smartcard Products
    • SJB Research - collects, analyses and shares business information on smart cards and biometrics
    • SmartDisk - smartcard which works as floppy disk
    • The Smart Card Club Site
    • Todos Data Systems - home banking, home shopping and pay phone smartcard products
    • Tritheim Smartcard Solution

    The following technique are not smartcard techniques. They are in quite often used in applications where smartcards are also used, so I felt that they should be also in this same page.

    Magnetic cards

    • Card-O-Rama: Magnetic Stripe Technology and Beyond
    • Decoding magnetic cards
    • Documentation for SR&D MCR-175-1R-0803 mag stripe card reader - signals and reading source code
    • Information about the Magnetic Strips on cards - zipped texxt files from Darrens Odds & Sods page
    • Interpretation of Clock-and-Data reader output for standard HID formatted cards - information on card reader interface emulates a magnetic stripe reader track 2 data output, application note from HID Corporation
    • Mag Stripe Card Info - summary of tips using magnetic card reader modules
    • MagneticStripeCardReader Software
    • Magnetic stripe technology - many articles and related files
    • Magtek - company which makes magnetic card products
    • Perspectives - Automatic Teller Machines - copy of a set of class notes
    • Swipe Card Reader Interface - based on PIC

    Barcode

    • Altek Pages - premier Barcode site, barcode specifications
    • Barcode 1 - A Web Of Information About Bar Code
    • Barcodes FAQ - introduction on printing bar codes, many popular barcodes listed
    • Bar Code Scanner - project document
    • Barcode Server - form that generates 12 digit UPC bas codes
    • Bar Code Symbologies - information about many different bar codes
    • Code 128 Specification - very high density alphanumeric bar code
    • Uniform Code Council - bar code organization for coordinating bar codes used in products