JP2598056B2 - Portable electronic devices - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an erasable nonvolatile memory and
The present invention relates to a portable electronic device called an IC card having a built-in IC (integrated circuit) chip having a control element such as a CPU.

(Prior art) Recently, EEPR has been used as a new portable data storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art An IC card having a built-in IC chip having a control element such as an OM or an erasable nonvolatile memory and a CPU has been developed. In this type of IC card, a built-in memory is accessed by a built-in control element, and necessary data is input / output in response to a request from an external device.

The memory of such an IC card is divided into a plurality of areas in accordance with the characteristics of the stored data or the intended use, and the area is operated as an access unit.

In each of the areas thus divided and defined, data may be stored with easy-to-handle code information according to the characteristics of the stored data or the intended use. Therefore, in such a case, when performing data processing or the like by accessing each area of the memory, it is necessary to identify what kind of code information the data is stored in each area of the memory.

Therefore, conventionally, on the application side, identification information for identifying what kind of code information is stored in each area of the memory is stored, and based on this identification information, what kind of code information is used. It is determined whether or not the information is stored.

However, in such a method in which the application stores identification information for identifying what kind of code information is stored in each area of the memory, for example, identification information is stored for each type of IC card. Therefore, there is a problem that management of identification information on the application side is troublesome, and a load on the application side increases.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) According to the present invention, as described above, in the method of storing identification information for identifying what code information is stored in each area of the memory on the application side, ,
Management of identification information on the application side is troublesome,
In order to solve the problem that the load on the application side increases, identification information for identifying what kind of code information each area of the memory is stored on the application side is stored. An object of the present invention is to provide a portable electronic device that does not need to manage identification information on the application side and can reduce the burden on the application side.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) A portable electronic device according to the present invention includes an erasable nonvolatile memory, and selectively reads and writes data from and to the nonvolatile memory. In a portable electronic device having a control unit for inputting and outputting data from the outside, the nonvolatile memory includes a plurality of data areas for storing data and addresses and sizes of data areas for each data area. It has at least two areas of the area definition information area for storing the area definition information to be defined, and in each area definition information stored in the area definition information area, what kind of area is defined by the area definition information It is characterized by adding identification information capable of identifying whether data is stored by code information and storing the data.

(Operation) Each area of the nonvolatile memory is accessed by adding, to the area definition information, identification information capable of identifying what kind of code information the area defined by the area definition information stores data. At this time, by referring to the identification information, it is possible to easily identify what kind of code information the data is stored in the area. Therefore, it is not necessary for the application to store identification information for identifying what kind of code information is stored in each area, so that the application does not need to manage the identification information, and Burden can be reduced.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 shows a configuration example of a card handling device to which an IC card as a portable electronic device according to the present invention is applied, for example, used as a terminal device such as a home banking system or a shopping system. That is, this device allows the IC card 1 to be connected to a control unit 3 including a CPU or the like via a card reader / writer 2, and the control unit 3 includes a keyboard 4, a CRT display device 5, a printer 6, and a floppy disk device. 7
Are connected.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the IC card 1, in which a control element (for example, CPU) 11 as a control unit, a data memory 12,
It comprises a program memory 13 and a contact portion 14 for obtaining electrical contact with the card reader / writer 2, of which a portion within a broken line (the control element 11,
The data memory 12 and the program memory 13) are composed of one IC chip (or a plurality of IC chips) and are embedded in the main body of the IC card. The program memory 13 is configured by, for example, a mask ROM, and stores a control program of the control element 11 and the like. The data memory 12 is used for storing various data, and is constituted by an erasable non-volatile memory such as an EEPROM.

The data memory 12 is largely divided into an area definition information area 121 and a data area 122 as shown in FIG. The area definition information area 121 stores area definition information for dividing and defining the data area 122 into a plurality of areas. Area definition information for dividing and defining one area includes an area number defining an area-specific number, a head address defining an area position in a data area, and an area size defining an area size. Each area definition information is added with identification information for identifying what code information is used to store data defined in the area defined by the area definition information. In the example of FIG. 1, for example, start address A ₀₁ at address areas [01], the area size S
₀₁ bytes, indicating that the identification information is an ASCII code. The start address of area [02] is A ₀₂
The address and area size are _S02 bytes, and the identification information is HEX
It is a code.

The identification information may be written at the same time as writing the area definition information, or may be written after writing the area definition information.

As described above, each area of the data memory 12 can be accessed by adding, to the area definition information, identification information that can identify the type of code information in which the data is stored in the area defined by the area definition information. In this case, by referring to the corresponding identification information, it is possible to easily identify what kind of code information the data is stored in the area. This eliminates the need for the application to store the identification information for identifying the type of code information stored in each area as in the conventional case, so that the application does not need to manage the identification information. In addition, the burden on the application side can be reduced.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, it is necessary to store identification information for identifying what code information is stored in each area of the memory on the application side. Therefore, it is not necessary to manage the identification information on the application side, and it is possible to provide a portable electronic device capable of reducing the load on the application side.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration in a data memory, FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of an IC card, and FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a handling apparatus. 1 IC card (portable electronic device), 2 card reader / writer, 11 control element (control section), 12 data memory (non-volatile memory), 13 program memory, 121 Area definition information area, 122 ... Data area.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A portable electronic device comprising: an erasable nonvolatile memory; and a control unit for reading and writing data from and to the nonvolatile memory to selectively input and output external data. The nonvolatile memory includes at least two areas of a plurality of data areas for storing data and an area definition information area for storing area definition information for defining an address and a size of a data area for each data area. Having identification information capable of identifying what kind of code information data is stored in the area defined by the area definition information to each area definition information stored in the area definition information area. A portable electronic device characterized by storing. 2. The portable electronic device according to claim 1, wherein said code information is an ASCII, HEX, OCT, DEC code or the like. 3. The portable electronic device according to claim 1, wherein said identification information is added when said area definition information is stored. 4. The portable electronic device according to claim 1, wherein said identification information is added after storing said area definition information.