JPH02282885A - Portable data storage carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the deterioration of the application processing speed even with increase of the write command ratio by preparing a 2nd data storage part having the unit data writing/reading time approximately equal to the time required for reading the unit data out of a 1st storage part in addition to this first storage part. CONSTITUTION:When the power is supplied to an IC card, a microprocessor 7 copies all data on a PROM 10 to a RAM 11. Then the microprocessor 7 analyzes the type of a command received from an external device and writes data into the RAM 11 when a write command is confirmed. Meanwhile the microprocessor 7 reads data out of the RAM 11 with a read command. The microprocessor 7 sends these writing/reading results back to the external device and waits for the command transmitted again from the external device. When the received command is equal to an end command, the data are compared between the RAM 11 and the PROM 10. Then only different data are copied to the PROM 10 from the RAM 11. As a result, the application processing speed is never deteriorated despite increase of the ratio of write commands to a portable data storage means.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to portable data storage carriers, such as IC cards, containing integrated circuits such as microcomputers and memories.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Portable data storage carriers with integrated circuits such as memories built inside them, in particular IC cards with a microprocessor and memory in a plastic card of the same size as a magnetic card, have their own data processing capabilities. Intelligence, random access to stored data.

Due to their much larger storage capacity than magnetic cards, they have come to be widely used for ID cards, bank cards, credit cards, information files, etc.

A conventional portable data storage carrier will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Figure 3 shows a conventional portable data recorder 1i! FIG. 2 is an external view showing the shape of an IC card, which is an example of a carrier. In Figure 3, 1 is an IC card, 2 is an integrated circuit inside the IC card, and I
Terminals 28 to 2h constitute the terminal section 2, which is a terminal section consisting of a plurality of terminals used for connection with the C card external device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an integrated circuit module built into the IC card. 2a in Figure 4
2h is the same as 28 to 2h in FIG. 3, 2a is a power supply terminal of the integrated circuit module, 2b is a reset terminal for initializing the integrated circuit module, and 2c is a clock terminal for supplying a clock to the integrated circuit module. , 2d is Preliminary II
2e is the ground terminal that is the ground of the integrated circuit module, 2f is the write power R terminal used for writing to the memory in the integrated circuit module, and 2g is for communication between the integrated circuit module and the IC card external device. I1 for
0 terminal and 2h are spare terminals. 3 is a microprocessor that controls the entire integrated circuit module, 3a is a communication control means that controls communication with external equipment, and 3b is an access control means that controls reading and writing to the data storage section. 4 is a ROM that stores programs for the microprocessor 3; 5 is a RAM that is used as a working area when the microprocessor 3 operates; and 6 is a FROM that is a data storage section for storing data.

In the IC card consisting of an integrated circuit module shown in FIG. 4, a microprocessor 3 controls the integrated circuit module according to a command given from an external device via an I10 terminal 2g, and the processing result is sent as a response to an I10 terminal 2g.
is returned to the external device via. Communication via the I10 terminal 2g is generally a half-duplex start-stop synchronization type, and the transmission speed is 96 cm for the IC card consisting of the integrated circuit module shown in Figure 4.
00 baud, character format is start bit 1
7 data bits, 1 parity bit, and 1 stop bit.

If the command is a read command, the microprocessor 3 reads data from the FROM 6 and returns this data to the external device as a response. Conversely, if the command is a write command, the microprocessor 3 converts the data included in the command into F.
After writing into the ROM 6, the result indicating whether or not the writing was performed normally is returned to the external device as a response.

Table 1 below shows an example of the format and number of bytes of the command. In Table 1, the command type specifies the processing content of the IC card, and includes at least two types: read command and write command. The reference supplements the content of the command type, and for example, in the case of a read command or a write command, it is the address of FROM 6 in FIG. 4. Command data is the target of processing specified by the command type, for example, in the case of a write command, the FR
OM6+ indicates the data to be written. BCC is a check code for detecting command transmission errors.

Table 2 below shows an example of the format and number of bytes of the reference.

In Table 2, the command copy is the command type of the latest command sent from the external device to the rC card. The status represents the processing result on the IC card. The response data is a target to be transmitted to an external device, and for example, in the reference to the read, it is data read from FROM6. BCC is a check code for detecting transmission errors in responses.

In this way, the IC card realizes data transmission and reception with an external device.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, the conventional IC cards as described above have the following problems.

In FIG. 4, the time required for the microprocessor 3 to receive a command from an external device is 10, the time required for the microprocessor 3 to send a response to the external device is tl, and the microprocessor 3 analyzes the command. The time required for the microprocessor 3 to assemble the response is t2, the time required for the microprocessor 3 to read 1 byte of data from the FROM 6 is t4. Let t5 be the time required for the microprocessor 3 to write 1 byte of data to the FROM 6.

The time required to send and receive commands and responses between the external device and the IC card and read 1 byte of data from the memory in the IC card to the external device is to+t2+t4+t3+t1.

Conversely, the time required to send and receive commands and responses between the external device and the IC card and write 1 byte of data from the external device to the memory of the IC card is to+t2+t5+t3+t1.

Similarly, the time required to send and receive commands and responses between the external device and the IC card and read N bytes of data from the memory in the IC card to the external device is NX (to + t2 + t4 + t3 + tl) between the external device and the IC card.
The time required to send and receive commands and responses to and from the C card and write N bytes of data from the external device to the memory of the IC card is NX (tO+t2+t5-)-t3+tl).

Table 1 shows the IC card consisting of the integrated circuit module shown in Figure 4.
9 If you follow the commands and responses in Table 2, 10 is 5.
ms, tl is 5ms, t2 is 0.5tns, t3 is 0.
5ms, t4 is 2μs, and t5 is 10m5.

Therefore, the time required to read the data of N l<ite from the memory in the IC card to the external device is approximately NX11m.
5. The time required to write N bytes of data from an external device to the memory in the IC card is approximately NX21m5. The difference in read and write time is caused by the difference in t4 and t5. That is, the FROM 6 for storing data in the IC card is normally an electrically written/erasable EEPROM, but with the current technology, the readout time of the EEPROM is several 100 ns.
This is because, on the other hand, the writing time requires at least 10 m5.

An application using an IC card performs processing by repeatedly reading and writing to the IC card. However, when using the conventional IC card described above, the processing speed of an application is regulated by the write time to the IC card, and as a result, even if the number of commands to the IC card is the same, the processing speed of an application that has many write commands will decrease. There was an issue to do.

Up to now, the case where EEPROM is used as FROM6 has been explained, but it goes without saying that the same applies even if EPROM is used instead of EEFROM.

Furthermore, although the description has been made by taking an IC node as an example of a portable data storage carrier, the same applies to a portable data storage carrier other than an IC card, which is composed of a data storage section and an access control means.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and the time required to write to a portable data storage carrier is approximately equal to the time required to read from the portable data storage carrier, thereby increasing the processing speed of an application using a portable data storage carrier. The portable data storage carrier can be determined only by the number of commands to be sent to the portable data storage carrier per unit time, and the processing speed of the application does not decrease even if the ratio of write commands to the portable data storage carrier increases. The purpose is to provide.

Means for Solving the Problems To achieve this object, the portable data storage carrier of the present invention provides a first data storage with a time approximately equal to the time required to read a unit of data from the first data storage. A second data storage section having equal unit data write time and read time is provided.

Effect: With this configuration, when data is written to and read from the portable data storage carrier from the second data storage section, the writing time and the reading time from the portable data storage carrier can be made approximately equal. The processing speed of an application using the portable data storage carrier can be determined only by the number of commands sent to the portable data storage carrier per unit time, and remains constant even if the ratio of write commands to the portable data storage carrier changes.

EXAMPLE An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an integrated circuit module built into an IC card, which is an example of a portable data storage carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 2a to 2h are the same as 2a to 2h in FIG. 4, 2a is the power supply terminal of the integrated circuit module, 2b is the reset terminal for initializing the integrated circuit module, and 2C is the integrated circuit module. Clock terminal that supplies clock to the module, 2
d is a spare terminal, 2e is a ground terminal which is the ground of the integrated circuit module, 2f is a write power supply terminal used for writing to the memory in the integrated circuit module, and 2g is a communication between the integrated circuit module and the IC card external device. The I10 terminal and 2h are reserved terminals for performing this. 7 is a microprocessor that controls the entire integrated circuit module; 7a;
7b is a communication control means for controlling communication with an external device, and 7b is an access control means for controlling reading and writing to the data storage section. 8 is a ROM that stores the program for the microprocessor 7; 9 is a RAM that is used as a working area when the microprocessor 7 operates;
0 is a FROM which is a first data storage section for storing data, and 11 is a RAM which is a second data storage section for storing data.

In the IC card consisting of the integrated circuit module shown in FIG. 1, the microprocessor 7 controls the integrated circuit module in accordance with a command given from an external device via the I10 terminal 2g, similar to the IC card consisting of the integrated circuit module shown in FIG. Then, the processing result is sent to I10 terminal 2 as a response.
The data is returned to the external device via g. Communication via the I10 terminal 2g is generally a half-duplex start-stop synchronization type, and is
For the C card, the transmission speed is 9600 baud, and the character format is 1 start bit and 7 data bits.
Assume that there are 1 bit, 1 parity bit, and 1 stop bit.

The command format and number of bytes are the same as in Table 1 above. However, it is assumed that the command types include at least three fl types: read command, write command, and end command. The reference format and number of bytes are the same as in Table 2 above.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the IC card comprising the integrated circuit module of FIG.

The operation of the IC card comprising the integrated circuit module shown in FIG. 1 will be explained below in accordance with the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, when power is supplied to the IC card consisting of the integrated circuit module shown in FIG.
After copying all IO data to RAMII, the microprocessor 7 waits for a command to be sent from the external device to which the IC card is connected. When a command is sent from an external device, the microprocessor 7
Analyze the command type. If the command is a write command, data is written to RAMI 1, and if the command is a read command, data is read from RAMI 1. After this, the result is returned to the external device as a response, and the device waits for a command to be sent from the external device again.

If the command is neither a write command nor a read command, it is checked whether it is an end command. If it is not an end command, the corresponding processing is performed and the result is returned to the external device as a response, and the command is sent from the external device again. wait for it to come.

If it is an end command, the data in RAMII and FROMIO are compared and only the different data is copied from RAMII to FROMIO. Subsequently, after returning the result to the external device as a response, the IC card ends all processing.

In this way, data transmission and reception between the external device and the IC card is performed using RAMI 1 in the IC card.

The processing time in this example is calculated below.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, the time required for the microprocessor 7 to receive a command from an external device is tlo,
tll is the time required for the microprocessor 7 to send a response to an external device, t12 is the time required for the microprocessor 7 to analyze the command, t13 is the time required for the microprocessor 7 to assemble the response, and t13 is the time required for the microprocessor 7 to assemble the response. The time required for reading data from RAMII is t14, the time required for microprocessor 7 to write 1 byte of data to RAMII t15, the time required for microprocessor 7 to read 1 byte of data from FROMIO tl
o, microprocessor 7 sends 1 byte of data FRO
The time required for writing to MIO is tll, the time required for the microprocessor 7 to compare two data t18, the time required for the microprocessor 7 to increment the address is t19, and the time required for the microprocessor 7 to increment the address is tll. Let t20 be the time required to determine whether the address is the final address. Also FROMI
O and RAMII have the same capacity, L bytes, P ROM
Assume that the number of bytes of data that differs between RAMII and RAMII is J bytes.

Commands and responses are sent and received between the external device and the IC card, and 1 byte of data is transferred to the R in the IC card.
The time required to read data from AMII to an external device is t10+t12+t14+t13+tll.

Conversely, the time required to send and receive commands and responses between the external device and the IC card and write 1 byte of data from the external device to the RAM II in the IC card is t10+t12+t15+t13+tll.

Similarly, the time required to send and receive commands and responses between the external device and the IC card and read N bytes of data from the RAM II in the IC card to the external device is NX (t 1 o + t 12 + t 14"t 13+t
l l) The time required to send and receive commands and responses between the external device and the IC card, and write N bytes of data from the external device to the RAM II in the IC card is NX (t10+t12+t15+t13+tll)FR
The time required to copy all OMIO data to RAM1.1 is Lx (t16+t15+t19+t20)RAMII
The time required to compare the data between RAMII and FROMIO and copy only the different data from RAMII to FROMIO is given by J (t14+t18+t17+tL9+t20).

When using the IC card in Figure 1 and following the commands and responses in Table 11 and Table 2, tlo is 5ms, tll is 5ms, and t
l2 is 0.5ms, tl3 is 0.5ms, t ], 4
is 2μs, tl5 is 2μs, tl,6 is 2μS, tl7
is loms, tl8 is 2μs, tl9 is 21ts, t2
0 is 2 μs.

From now on, the time required to send and receive commands and responses between the external device and the IC card, and read N bytes of data from RAMII in the IC card to the external device, is approximately NX11m5, and N bytes of data. The time required to write data from the external device to the RAM II in the IC card is approximately N×11 m5.

Also, the time required to copy all the data from FROMIO to RAMII is LX8μs, and the time required to copy all data from FROMIO to RAMII is
The time required to compare data with OM 10 and copy only the different data from RAMII to FROMIO is approximately JX10ms.

According to this embodiment, data transmission and reception between the external device and the IC card is carried out using the RAM 11 in the IC card, so that the IC card performs processing while repeating reading and eM loading to the IC card. The processing speed of applications using cards is I per unit time.
Since it is determined only by the number of commands to the C card,
As long as the number of commands to the IC card is the same, there will be no reduction in processing speed even if the application has many write commands.

Compare the time required to copy all the data in FROMIO to RAMII and the data in RAMII and PROMlo, and copy only the different data from RAMII to PR.
The time required to copy to OM 10 is something that prior art IC cards did not have.

The memory capacity of an IC card is
a L byte. The memory capacity of IC cards generally has an upper limit of 8192 bytes. In this case F
The time required to copy all the ROMIO data to the RAM 11 is approximately 65m5. This is from an external device.
This is approximately equal to the time required to write or read 6 bytes of data to or from a C card. The problem is the time required to write to or read from an IC card.
This is an application that requires writing or reading a large amount of data between C cards. For example, Ic
An application that writes or reads 100 bytes of data to/from a card requires approximately 1100 ms for this read or write. For such applications, all data in F ROM 10 must be
The time required to copy to AMII, approximately 65m5, is almost negligible.

In addition, it is sufficient to compare the data in RAMII and FROMIO and copy only the different data from RAMI 1 to FROMIO when you finish using the IC card, for example, when you separate the IC card from an external device. At this point, all the processing of the application has finished, so the processing speed of the application will not be reduced.

Furthermore, by taking advantage of the feature of the IC card according to the present invention that data is not copied from RAM 11 to PROM 10 unless a termination command is issued, it is possible for the application to use the IC card as a temporary processing data storage memory and influence the FROMIO data. It also has the advantage of being able to be used without giving any damage.

In Figure 1, FROMIO is either EEPROM or EP.
Needless to say, ROM is fine.

Up to now, the explanation has been given using an IC card as an example of a portable data storage carrier, but the same applies to other portable data storage carriers that are composed of a data storage section and an access control means.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention includes, in addition to the first data storage unit,
processing of an application using the portable data storage carrier, the second data storage having a unit data writing time and a reading time approximately equal to the time required to read a unit of data from the first data storage unit; The speed can be determined only by the number of commands sent to the portable data storage carrier per unit time, and the processing speed of the application will not decrease even if the rate of write commands to the portable data storage carrier increases. The effect is that it is possible to easily create applications that use high-speed processing.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a portable data storage system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an integrated circuit module built into an IC card, which is an example of an IC card; Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the operation of the IC card in Figure 1; FIG. 4 is an external view showing the shape of an IC card, which is an example of a portable data storage carrier, and a block diagram showing the configuration of an integrated circuit module built into the IC card. 2a...Power terminal of integrated circuit module, 2b
...Integrated circuit module? 71st reset terminal, 2C...Clock terminal that supplies clock to the integrated circuit module, 2d...Pre-11
1. lil child, 2e...Ground terminal which is the ground of the integrated circuit module, 2f......Writing power supply terminal used for writing to the memory in the lff1 circuit module, 2g... Integrated circuit module and I
110 terminal for communicating with the C card external device, 2h... Reserve terminal, 7... Microprocessor for controlling the entire bond circuit module, 7a.
. . . Communication control means for controlling communication III with external equipment, 7b . . . Access control means for controlling writing and reading of the data storage unit \, 8 . . . Microprocessor 7 ROM that stores the program of
9... RAM used as a working area when the microprocessor 7 operates, 10...
・PROM, 11, which is a first data storage unit for storing data; RAM, which is a first data storage unit for storing data; Name of agent: Patent attorney Shigetaka Awano and one other person Figure 2

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) comprising a first data storage section, a second data storage section, and an access control means for controlling writing and reading to the first and second data storage sections; The time required to write unit data is longer than the time required to read unit data, and the time required to write unit data to the second data storage section and the time required to read unit data are longer than the time required to read unit data to the first data storage section. A portable data storage carrier, characterized in that the time required for writing is approximately equal to the time required for writing, and the storage capacity of the second data storage section is greater than or equal to the storage capacity of the first data storage section. (2) The first data storage section is an EEPROM, and the second data storage section is an EEPROM.
Portable data storage carrier according to claim 1, characterized in that the data storage section is constituted by a RAM. (3) The portable data storage carrier according to claim 1, wherein the first data storage section is an EPROM, and the second data storage section is a RAM.