Smart Card

[ITlover]

What is smart card and for which purpose is it used?

[doctorgonzo]

A smartcard is a hunk of flat plastic that contains a microchip capable of storing and possibly manipulating information. It can be used for lots of things. SIM cards in GSM phones are smartcards. More and more credit cards are smartcards, especially in Europe, and the chips are used to make transactions more secure by requiring a PIN. They can be used as access tokens to give access to doors or computers (high-security places may require you to have a smartcard to use a computer terminal, for example). The uses of smartcards are limited only be cost and imagination.

[EzyStvy]

smart card

A small electronic device about the size of a credit card that contains electronic memory, and possibly an embedded integrated circuit (IC). Smart cards containing an IC are sometimes called Integrated Circuit Cards (ICCs).

Smart cards are used for a variety of purposes, including:

Storing a patient's medical records
Storing digital cash
Generating network IDs (similar to a token)
To use a smart card, either to pull information from it or add data to it, you need a smart card reader, a small device into which you insert the smart card.


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[ITlover]

Thanks for updating me about smart card, I have heard in one of the TV programes that smart card is also used for offline transaction, can you clarify how can we do offline transaction by smart card?
Can the microprocessing chip embedded on smart card perform transaction in offline mode?

what is digital cash?

Regards,

[EzyStvy]

I'd guess they are saying you can use it like a Credit Card/Impac Card.

Digital cash - A credit card is a form of digital cash. PayPal is another form.

[ITlover]

Please clarify,

Is IC(Integrated Circuit) same as microprocessing chip?

Also is their a seperate machine for inserting smart card?

How do we connect that machine to a computer,any idea?

[spyder003]

Originally Posted by ITlover Also is their a seperate machine for inserting smart card? How do we connect that machine to a computer,any idea?

Yep, the ones we use at work just hook up to a standard USB port.