What is IC card

A new integrated circuit card is quietly entering modern life today, when people are no longer unfamiliar with making phone calls or buying credit cards.

IC card is also called IC card, it is in size and ordinary credit card with the same plastic card embedded one or more integrated circuits. Integrated circuit chips can be memory or to the processor. The IC card with memory is also called memory card or storage card, and IC card with microprocessor is also called smart card. A memory card can store a large amount of information, and a smart card not only has memory but also the ability to process information.

The IC card was invented by a French journalist in 1974. Because of its small size, easy to carry, large storage, good confidentiality, long service life, low manufacturing costs, it is increasingly favored by people. Today, it has been widely used in financial circulation, shopping prepaid, identity authentication, data recording and so on.

For example, IC cards can easily pay for a variety of petty expenses, such as car fees, telephone charges, subway fares, canteen meals, road pay and shopping tourism, trade services.

IC card can also record personal data, such as my physiological characteristics, work resumes, medical records, over every drug and other information to meet the needs of social activities, personal financial accounts, tax warehousing, rewards and punishments records, meeting records, etc., can also be connected with the network management system, at any time to pull up the relevant information.

IC Card in the field of communications, can be used to hang up the public telephone, pay telephone bills, as well as mobile communications and cable television needs to identify personal code to allow the use of some of the new business. IC Card public telephone is one of the most widely used IC card applications at present. Because IC card phone card reader without any mechanical action, but also with IC card security and other functions, so it is reliable, safe, flexible and management and so on than the magnetic card phone more than a chip.

IC Card in the Global rapid development, currently has 300 million, and the annual growth rate of 40% widely used in various fields, as a measure of a country's economic development level of an important symbol. Europe has the largest number of cards, has reached 114 million, France's card issuance and card-reading equipment are ranked first in the world.

The United States and Japan are the first countries to promote credit cards, but mainly in the areas of high security requirements to apply IC card. For example, the identity card of the American military has all used IC card identification system; The student ID card of the students in Singapore is made up of IC cards, which can be used as proof of identity as well as records of students ' performance, borrowing of books and sporting goods, attendance, and can also be used as a meal card and a small amount

The use of IC card in China is still at the beginning stage, it is said that by the quarter of 1995 has 4.1 million card issuance, in the financial system is vigorously promoted. The development of the IC card public telephone system has also been started, it can be expected that its application will produce significant social and economic benefits.