JPS63220386A - Portable electronic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent writing data from generating a recording error and to surely protect the writing data by providing the titled device with a means for simultaneously writing the same data in plural areas at the time of writing data in a data memory. CONSTITUTION:The data memory 16 is divided into plural areas A-D, data are stored in respectively areas A-D and the same data can be simultaneously written in two areas. For instance, data (a) are written in the areas A, B and data (b) are written in the areas C, D respectively. Even if a recording error is generated in one area, the data can be held in the other area, so that the writing data can be surely protected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Object of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application)
The present invention relates to a portable electronic device called an IC card that has a built-in tC chip having a control element such as a PU.

(Prior Art) Recently, as a new portable data storage medium, an IC card incorporating an IC chip having a nonvolatile data memory and a control element such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) has been developed. This kind of I
The C card accesses the built-in data memory using the built-in IIJIIII element, and inputs and outputs necessary data in response to requests from external devices. Also,
Data memory is defined by an area similar to the concept of a file, and this area is used as an access unit.

When writing data to such an IC card, data from an external device is written into one area. Therefore, if a failure such as a defective cell occurs in an area during data writing, the written data may become defective and a write error may occur.

Therefore, by reading the written data in response to a verification request from an external device, the written data is verified, that is, read-after-write is performed, and if the verification result does not match, new writing is performed in another area. It looks like this.

However, after the above-mentioned read-after-write is performed, a recording error may occur in the written data due to the effects of static electricity, bit reversal caused by being dropped during transportation, etc. In this case, it is not possible to protect the written data. The drawback was that it couldn't be done.

In particular, important data such as passwords could be destroyed, which was a serious problem.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) As mentioned above, when a recording error occurs in the write data,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a portable electronic device which eliminates the disadvantage of not being able to protect written data, which can prevent recording errors in written data, and which can reliably protect written data. .

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The portable electronic storage device of the present invention has a data memory area divided into a plurality of areas, and data reading and writing to the data memory. When writing data to the data memory, the same data is written to multiple areas at the same time. This means that a means has been established.

(Function) The present invention provides the following features: when blurring data into a data memory,
This allows the same data to be written to multiple areas at the same time.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a card handling device used as a terminal device in, for example, a home banking system or a shopping system, to which an IC card as a portable electronic device of the present invention is applied. That is, this device enables an IC card 1 to be connected to a control section 3 consisting of a CPU or the like via a card reader/writer 2 as a card processing device, and also connects the control section 3 to a keyboard 4, a CRT display device 5, and a printer. 6 and a floppy disk device 7 are connected.

The IC card 1 is held by the user and is used to refer to a personal identification number known only to the user when purchasing a product, for example, and to store necessary data.The functional blocks of the IC card 1 are shown in Fig. 3. As shown in FIG.
It consists of a part that executes basic functions such as, and a supervisor 14 that manages these basic functions. The read/write unit 11 has a function of reading data from the card reader/writer 2, and reading or erasing data. The password setting/password verification unit 12 has a function of storing the password set by the user and prohibiting reading of the password, as well as verifying the password after setting the password and granting permission for subsequent processing. Encryption/decryption section 13
For example, when transmitting data from the control unit 3 to another terminal device via a communication line, the encryption function performs encryption to prevent leakage and forgery of communication data, and decrypts encrypted data. Yes, for example DES (Data En
This is a function that processes data according to an encryption algorithm with sufficient cryptographic strength, such as Crypton Standard). The supervisor 14 has the function of decoding the function code input from the card reader/writer 2 or the function code to which data is added, and selecting and executing a necessary function among the basic functions.

In order to perform these path functions, the IC card 1 is equipped with a control element (for example, a CPLI) as shown in FIG.
) 15, consists of a nonvolatile data memory 16 whose storage contents can be erased, a program memory 17, and a contact part 18 for obtaining electrical contact with the card reader/writer 2. parts (control element 15, data memory 16, program memory 17
) consists of one IC chip. The program memory 17 is composed of, for example, a mask ROM,
It stores a control program for the control element 15 including subroutines for realizing each of the basic functions. The data memory 16 is used to store various data, for example, E.
It is composed of EPROM.

As shown in FIG. 1, the data memory 16 is divided into a plurality of areas A1...
・Data is stored for each In each of the areas A, . . . , the same data is simultaneously written to the two areas. For example, data a is written in areas A and B, and data b is written in areas C and D, respectively.

Note that the area into which the same data is written may be two or more areas.

The card reader/writer 2 is used to exchange function codes and data between the IC card 1 and the control section 3.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, a transport mechanism 21 that transports the IC card 1 inserted into a card insertion slot (not shown) to a predetermined position, and a contact section 18 of the IC card 1 set at a predetermined position. a contact section 22 that is electrically contacted, a control circuit 23 consisting of a CPU that controls the entire system, and an input/output interface circuit for exchanging command data and response data between the control circuit 23 and the control section 3. 24, and a data memory 25 for storing data.

Next, the operation in such a configuration will be explained.

For example, now, in the password registration mode, a password is set using the keyboard 4. Then, the control unit 3 supplies the password to the control element 15 in the IC card 1 via the card reader/writer 2. As a result, 1l
ilJI! The l element 15 writes the supplied password into area A in the data memory 16 and also writes it into area B at the same time.

Furthermore, when writing other data to the data memory 16, the same data is simultaneously written into two areas in the same manner as described above.

In this way, when writing data to the data memory of an IC card, the same data is written to at least two areas at the same time, so even if a recording error occurs in one area, the data will be retained in the other area. You can keep it.

Therefore, written data can be reliably protected. This is particularly useful when protecting important information such as a password.

Furthermore, data can be reliably written without performing reader after-write.

In the above embodiment, when writing data, the same data is always written in multiple areas, but the present invention is not limited to this. Although the same description has been given, the present invention is not limited to a card-like structure, and may be, for example, a block-shaped or pencil-shaped structure.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a portable electronic device that can prevent recording errors in written data and can reliably protect written data.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings are for explaining one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an example of writing data in a data memory section, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a card handling device, and FIG. Figure 3 is a diagram showing the functional blocks of the IC card.
The figure is a block diagram showing the structure of an IC chip built into an IC card, and FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the structure of a card reader/writer. 1...IC card (portable electronic device), 2.
...Card reader/writer, 15...Control element (CPU), 16...Data memory, 2
3...Control circuit, A, ~...Area, a%b
···data. Figure 1 Figure 3

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) Data memory divided into multiple areas,
A portable electronic device having a control element for reading and writing data to and from the data memory, and a means for selectively inputting and outputting data from the outside. What is claimed is: 1. A portable electronic device, characterized in that it is provided with a writing means for writing the same data into a plurality of areas at the same time. (2) The portable electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the data memory is an erasable nonvolatile memory. (3) The portable electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the control element is a CPU.