Card-type storage medium

• US 6,415,350 B2
• Filed: 03/09/1998
• Issued: 07/02/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Asoh, Izumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chace, C. P.
• Application Number:
  US09/037,007
• Publication Number:
  US 20010002479A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,576 Days
• Field of Search: 711/170, 711/172, 711/173, 711/1, 711/2, 711/5, 711/115, 711/201, 711/156, 711/161, 711/162, 711/103, 710/8, 710/10, 710/13, 710/17, 710/101, 710/102, 710/103, 710/104
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/341 Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/082 Features insuring the integrity of the data on or in the card
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system

Abstract

A non-volatile memory installed inside an IC card having a main area and a temporary storage area. The main area is the area in which data is referred to by a host computer. The temporary storage area is the area in which data is transmitted and written by the host computer. Data from the host computer is copied to the main area after being written once in the temporary storage area. Further, data inside the temporary storage area which has not been yet copied is then copied to the main area at the time of power-up. Therefore, even if a power interruption occurs while data is input from the host computer to the IC card, data inside the main area is never destroyed and data inside the main area can be restored based on data remaining in the temporary storage area.

Claims

1. A card-type storage medium connected detachably to a higher-class unit inputting data into the medium, comprising:

a first non-volatile storage area located inside the card-type storage medium which stores data;

a second non-volatile storage area smaller than said first non-volatile storage area, located inside the card-type storage medium which temporarily stores a part of the whole amount of the data to be kept in said first non-volatile storage area, the data input by said higher-class unit; and

a writing element which writes the data stored in said second non-volatile storage area into said first non-volatile storage area when an operation of storing data into said second non-volatile storage area performed by said higher-class unit is completed,

wherein the data to be written into the first non-volatile storage area is first stored in the second non-volatile storage area and then upon completion of writing, the same data is subsequently written into the first non-volatile storage area.

2. The card-type storage medium according to claim 1, wherein said writing element writes the data stored in said second non-volatile storage area into said first non-volatile storage area when said writing element is powered-up.

3. The card-type storage medium according to claim 1, further comprising:

data receiving element receiving data from said higher-class unit and storing the data into said second non-volatile storage area; and

a data storing completion notifying element which notifies the completion of the operation of storing data to said higher-class unit at the time when the data input by said higher-class unit is completely stored into said second non-volatile storage area but before the data is written into said first non-volatile storage area,

wherein said writing element writes the data stored in said second non-volatile storage area into said first non-volatile storage area without relation to said higher-class unit after the completion of the operation of storing data is notified to said higher-class unit by the data storing completion notifying element.

4. The card-type storage medium according to claim 1, wherein said first non-volatile storage area and said second non-volatile storage area are constructed on the same non-volatile memories.

5. The card-type storage medium according to claim 1,

wherein said first non-volatile storage area and said second non-volatile storage area are divided into multiple sectors, respectively, and

wherein said writing element writes, for each sector of said second non-volatile storage area, the data stored in said each sector into a sector, corresponding to a writing area specified by said higher class unit, of said first non-volatile storage area.

6. The card-type storage medium according to claim 5, further comprising an identifying element which identifies for each sector of said second non-volatile storage area, whether or not writing of data stored in the sector into said first non-volatile storage area is completed;

and

said writing element writes, only for the sector of said second non-volatile storage area for which said identifying element identifies that writing of the data stored therein into said first non-volatile storage area is not completed, the data stored therein into a sector, corresponding to a writing area specified by said higher class unit, of said first non-volatile storage area.

7. The card-type storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the data stored in said first non-volatile storage area comprises a plurality of files which predetermined files are kept in duplicated form.

8. The card-type storage medium according to claim 5, further comprising:

a determining element which determines whether or not a defect is detected in a certain sector to be written by said writing element; and

a substitutional sector layout element which specifies any unused sector inside said first non-volatile storage area as a substitutional sector and causes said writing element to write said data into said substitutional sector when said defect is detected by said determining element in said certain sector.

9. The card-type storage medium according to claim 8, further comprising an unused sector managing element which manages unused sectors inside said first non-volatile storage area,

wherein said substitutional sector layout element specifies one of the unused sectors managed by said unused sector managing element as said substitutional sector.

10. The card-type storage medium according to claim 8,

wherein a sector existing in the specific position inside said first non-volatile storage area is preserved in advance as a substitutional sector, and

wherein said substitutional sector layout element specifies one of the sectors preserved for said substitutional sector as said substitutional sector.

11. The card-type storage medium according to claim 8, wherein said substitutional sector layout element includes a correspondence table showing the corresponding relation of said substitutional sector to the unavailable sector into which said determining element determines that writing of said data is impossible.

12. The card-type storage medium according to claim 9,

wherein said unused sector managing element includes a status displaying area prepared for each sector inside said first non-volatile storage area and indicates whether the corresponding sector is in a state of being one of in use, not in use, or unavailable.

13. The card-type storage medium according to claim 12, further comprising, for each sector of said first non-volatile storage area:

a first pointer displaying area for showing a pointer of a sector immediately before the object sector, and

a second pointer displaying area for showing a pointer of a sector right after the object sector,

wherein said substitutional sector layout element, when specifying a substitutional sector for an unavailable sector, changes an indication of said status displaying area for the unavailable sector to being unavailable, displays the pointer of the substitutional sector in the second pointer displaying area of the sector whose pointer is shown by the first pointer displaying area of the unavailable sector, and displays the pointer of the substitutional sector in the first pointer displaying area of the sector whose pointer is shown by the second pointer displaying area of the unavailable sector.

14. The card-type storage medium according to claim 8, further comprising, for each sector of said first non-volatile storage area:

an area for displaying the total number of times of retrying to write data in said each sector,

wherein said determining element determines the sector whose total number of times of retrying to write data displayed in said area for displaying the number of times of retrying to write data is equal to or greater than the predetermined number of times or more as an unavailable sector.

15. The card-type storage medium according to claim 8,

wherein said writing element executes, prior to a data writing processing in a certain sector, a deletion processing operation to the certain sector, and

wherein said determining element determines, if the time required until the completion of a data deletion in a certain sector reaches the predetermined time, that the certain sector is unavailable.

16. The card-type storage medium according to claim 8,

wherein said writing element executes, prior to a data writing processing to a certain sector, a deletion and retrying deletion processing operation to the certain sector, and

wherein said determining element determines, if the number of times of retrying deletion by said writing element required until the completion of data deletion in a certain sector is equal to or greater than the predetermined number of times, that the certain sector is unavailable.

17. The card-type storage medium according to claim 8,

wherein said determining element determines, if the number of times of retrying to write data by said writing element required until the completion of data writing in a certain sector is equal to or greater than the predetermined number of times, that the certain sector is unavailable.