IC card

• US 4,748,320 A
• Filed: 10/27/1986
• Issued: 05/31/1988
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/1985
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. (TOPPAN Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. (TOPPAN Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yorimoto, Yoshikazu, Takahashi, Masashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Pitts, Harold I.
• Application Number:
  US06/923,216
• Time in Patent Office: 582 Days
• Field of Search: 235/380, 235/492
• US Class Current: 235/492
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1068 in sector programmable memories, e.g. flash disk G06F11/1072 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/7814 Specially adapted for real time processing, e.g. comprising hardware timers
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/765 in solid state disks

Abstract

In an IC (integrated circuit) card, a CPU (central processing unit) is connected to a data bus and an address bus. A data memory is connected to the data bus and the address bus. The data memory is a rewritable memory, such as EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) or battery backed-up RAM (random access memory). The data memory is segmented into a predetermined number of sectors each consisting of predetermined bytes. An external processing device, such as a terminal device is connected to the data bus and the address bus, via a one-bit I/O line and a port. The terminal device supplies a processing instruction via the I/O line to the third port. The CPU receives the processing instruction via the data bus, analyzes the instruction, and reads out and executes the necessary program. The CPU supplies the results of each processing to the terminal device, by way of the data bus, the port and the I/O bus.

Claims

1. An IC (integrated circuit) card comprising:

rewritable memory means with a plurality of sectors; and

memory control means for writing into said memory means, data file supplied to the IC card from a processing device outside the IC card, said memory control means including means for chaining a plurality of sectors according to the length of the data file, means for writing chain data of each sector into a predetermined portion of the sector, and means for writing for each data file data relating to the sectors constituting the data file into a predetermined sector.

2. The IC card according to claim 1, in which said memory means includes a data sector constituting the data file, a directory sector for storing data relating to the sectors constituting each data file, a file control sector for storing data relating to the directory sector, and a memory control sector for storing data relating to unused data sector, and each of said sectors including the chain data relating to the sectors preceding and succeeding to one sector, and data for indicating that the data in said sector is normal.

3. The IC card according to claim 2, in which said data sector includes a data field, a preceding sector field for storing the preceding sector number, and a succeeding sector field for storing the succeeding sector number,

said directory sector includes a file name storing field, a top sector field for storing a top sector number of said file, a last sector field for storing a last sector number of said file, a used sector field for storing the size of said file (the number of sectors), the preceding sector field, the succeeding sector field, and a check field for storing check data, and

said memory control sector includes a free top field for storing a top sector number of unused sectors, a free last sector field for storing a last sector number of the unused sectors, a sector number field for storing the size of the unused sectors (the number of sectors), a defining field for storing the sector number of said file control sector, the preceding sector field, the succeeding sector field, and the check field.

4. The IC card according to claim 3, in which said memory control means initializes said memory means before said memory means is used, said initializing including the steps of:

writing zero into all of the addresses of said memory means;

storing the sectors in which error occurs;

reserving the top sector of those normal sectors as a memory control sector;

reserving the normal sector succeeding to the memory control sector, as a file control sector, setting "directory" into the file name storing field of said file control sector, the number of the next normal sector succeeding to said file control sector into the top sector field, said number of the next normal sector into the last sector field, one into the used sector field, zero into said preceding sector field, and zero into said succeeding sector field, and reserving said next normal sector as a dummy directory sector;

setting the sector number of said file control sector into the defining field of said memory control sector;

chaining the remaining normal sectors (i.e. registering the numbers of the normal sectors preceding and succeeding to one sector into said preceding and succeeding sector fields of each sector), said chained normal sectors being reserved as an unused file, the sector in which write error occurs being stored as a defective sector and being excluded from the sector chain; and

setting data into the free top sector field, the free last sector field, and the sector number field of said memory control sector according to the number of the stored defective sectors.

5. The IC card according to claim 1, in which said memory means is an EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) or battery backed-up RAM (random access memory).

6. The IC card according to claim 1, in which said memory control means converts a logical address as externally supplied into an absolute address and accesses said memory means with the absolute address.

7. The IC card according to claim 1, in which said memory control means skips the defective sector when a new file is formed in said memory means.

8. An IC card comprising:

rewritable memory means including a plurality of chained data sectors constituting a data file, a directory sector for storing data relating to the sectors constituting each data file, a file control sector for storing data relating to said directory sector, each sector having a field for storing data relating to the sector preceding and succeeding to one sector, and the data indicating that the data in the sector is normal; and

memory control means for reading the data file from said memory means, said memory control means including means for reading out a top sector of the data file, using the directory file and the memory control sector, means for reading out one sector succeeding to and chained with the read-out sector from the data relating to said succeeding sector, means for checking the coincidence and noncoincidence of the data relating to the succeeding sector of said read-out sector with the data relating to the preceding sector of said succeeding sector, and means for correcting, when the check result shows noncoincidence, the data relating to said preceding and succeeding sectors according to the data indicating that the data in the sector is normal.

9. The IC card according to claim 8, in which said data sector includes a data field, a preceding sector field for storing the preceding sector number, and a succeeding sector field for storing the succeeding sector number,

said directory sector includes a file name storing field, a top sector field for storing a top sector number of said file, a last sector field for storing a last sector number of said file, a used sector field for storing the size of said file (the number of sectors), the preceding sector field, the succeeding sector field, and a check field for storing check data, and

said memory control sector includes a free top field for storing a top sector number of unused sectors, a free last sector field for storing a last sector number of the unused sectors, a sector number field for storing the size of the unused sectors, a defining field for storing the sector number of said file control sector, the preceding sector field, the succeeding sector field, and the check field.

10. The IC card according to claim 8, in which said memory means is an EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) or battery backed-up RAM (random access memory).

11. The IC card according to claim 8, in which said memory control means converts a logical address as externally supplied into an absolute address and accesses said memory means with the absolute address.