Smart Cards
are credit card sized cards which consist of a microprocessor
chip that can be used for numerous types of applications.
Smart Cards come in a variety of memory storage capacity sizes
such as 1k, 2k, 4k, 8k, 16k, 32k, etc. of RAM.
There are
basically two types of Smart Cards. The first is the most
commonly used and least expensive to deploy and that is
contact cards. Contact cards have contacts exposed on
the surface of the card which are used to connect the microprocessor
to a Smart Card hardware device such as a POS terminals and Smart Card
readers.
The
second type of Smart Card is a contactless card. contactless
cards connect to hardware devices via RF microwaves. These
cards are sometimes referred to as proximity cards because
they are activated by being place close to a RF driven card
reader.
Additionally,
Smart Cards can contain a basic Mag Stripe such as the stripe
found on the back of credit and bank cards. A Mag Stripe only
card, while not a true Smart Card, can be used for basic
Smart Card like processes at a lower cost per card. Mag Stripe
cards can contain limited information on the stripe that can
be expanded via EITALL's encoding process providing you with a
cost effective solution for smaller applications.
