JPS6351298B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an information processing method in an IC card having a built-in microcomputer (microprocessor) and memory.

Cards with IC elements embedded in the card body, so-called IC cards, are widely used as personal identification cards such as ID cards, bank cards, and credit cards, and are also used as information files and other purposes. I'm getting old.

Such IC cards are equipped with a memory for storing information and a microcomputer (microprocessor) for data processing, and are used by storing necessary information in the memory. Therefore, when using an IC card, it is necessary to check the storage capacity remaining in the memory, and conventionally all stored information has been read out to an external device and checked. For this reason, the inspection process took a long time and had the disadvantage of being inefficient. Furthermore, as memories with larger storage capacities come to be used as built-in IC cards, IC cards with built-in memories of different storage capacities will coexist. Therefore, since the storage capacity differs depending on the IC card, it has become difficult to check the remaining memory capacity in the same device, and it has become even more necessary to know the remaining memory capacity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing method for an IC card that overcomes the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks and also fully satisfies the above-mentioned requirements. In other words, the IC card itself has the inspection function that was conventionally performed with an external device, and this allows the capacity of information stored in the memory to be checked.
By calculating the remaining memory capacity from the total memory capacity and outputting the result to the outside, it is possible to efficiently detect the remaining memory capacity, and
Even for IC cards with built-in memories of different storage capacities, the remaining memory capacity can be detected using the same external device.

This invention will be explained below.

In this invention, the information stored in the IC card is
When storing data in memory, it is stored according to a specific format. That is, a start code is added to the beginning of a series of data arrays, and an end code is added to the end of the data array to form a block of stored information. In this case, the length of the data array may be undefined or constant, but the format can be considered in the same way for both. Therefore, by checking the start code and end code added to the data array according to a specific format, the amount of stored information can be known, and the remaining memory capacity can be calculated from this.

Next, embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 is a memory map of the data array of information stored in the memory of the IC card.The minimum unit of data (#1, #2,...) is 1 byte, and the length of the data array is undefined. It shows the case. As is clear from this, data #1
Start code SC ₁ is added to the beginning of data #2, and end code EC ₁ is added to the end of the word to form block B _1. Start code SC ₂ is added to the beginning of data #2. At the same time, an end code EC ₂ is added to its tail to form block B ₂ . Similarly, data #n
A start code SCn and an end code ECn are added to the beginning and end of the block Bn to form a block Bn.
The subsequent memory area is an unused area.

To explain the information processing according to the flowchart in Fig. 2, when the test for the memory capacity of the IC card is started (step S1), the initial address of the memory for the test is set and the data is stored. Read out (steps S2, S3). Then, it is determined whether or not there is a start code (step S
4) If there is a starter code, the address is incremented from the initial address and the next data is read out (steps S4 to S6). Here, it is determined whether or not there is an end code (step S7),
If there is no end code, return to step S5 and repeat reading the data. If there is an end code, one block of data has been stored, so the address is further incremented and the data of the next block is read. (Step S)
8, S9), it is determined whether there is a start code (step S10). If there is a start code in this judgment, return to step S5 above,
Repeat the same inspection process as above. Then, in the judgment in step S10, if there is no start code (for example, the code falls next to the end code ECn in FIG. 1), or if no start code is detected in step S4 (for example, no data is stored in the memory). If the address is not the final address information (initial value data) stored in memory in advance or specified as a constant in the program (step S11), an error code is set if it is not the initial value data. and outputs it (steps S15, S13). In addition, in the case of initial value data, it means that there is still unused space, so the difference between the address information at the time the initial state information of the memory is detected and the final address information is calculated, and the The value obtained by adding "+1" to the result is output to the external device as remaining memory capacity information (steps S11 to S14). For example, memory capacity is 16K
In the case of bits (=2K bytes), the final address information of the memory is given in advance as "7FF" in hexadecimal code, and if the address next to the last address where data is stored is, for example, "3FF", “400” is obtained as the difference between the two. Therefore,
As a result, "1" is added to "400" and "401" is output as memory remaining capacity information, or this value is processed and output to an external device.

By the way, if the data array has a block configuration with a constant length, it is not necessary to check each address sequentially as described above, but instead check the start code for each address corresponding to the data length of one block. It's okay. Furthermore, since the data length is constant, the number of blocks that can be stored can be determined from the total capacity, so the remaining memory capacity may be output to an external device as information on the number of blocks.
Furthermore, although the above explanation is based on the case where the minimum unit of data is 1 byte, it is also possible to store and process the minimum unit of data in bits, and the start code and end code can be 1 byte.
The data is not limited to units of data, but may be added as several units of data as necessary.

As described above, according to the present invention, there is no need to read the information to an external device to detect the remaining memory capacity, and the detection can be performed efficiently within the IC card. There is also the advantage that the same external device can handle both cases.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a memory map showing the format of stored information according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the present invention. S1 to S15...processing steps, SC, SC ₁ ,
SC ₂ ,... ...Start code, EC, EC ₁ ,
EC ₂ ,… End code.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Built-in microcomputer and memory
In an information processing method for an IC card, information consisting of a set of data blocks in a predetermined unit is stored in the memory with a start code and an end code attached to each block, and the information stored in the memory is read out and inspected. The IC card is characterized in that the capacity of the writable unused area of the memory is determined as block number information by counting the start code and the end code, and the result is output to an external device. Information processing method.