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World wide standards are driven by a single organisation called the
International Standards Organisation (ISO) based in Geneva. Members of
ISO are national standardisation bodies (e.g. ANSI, BSI and DIN). The
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is also interested in
standards in the field of electronics. In many cases their standards
have been combined and are often referenced as ISO/IEC standards.
ISO/IEC have a Joint Technical Committee (JTC1) which looks after
computer related standards. Within JTC1 there is a sub-committee (SC17)
which looks after Identification Cards. SC17 has six working groups
(WG) below it. WG4 is involved in the standards for Contact Integrated
Circuit (IC) cards whilst WG8 is working on contactless IC card
standards.
ISO works through a formal structure of committees, subcommittees and
working groups, using a formal procedure of drafting review and voting
to develop its standards. This structure does not always result in the
timely production of standards, or production of sufficiently specific
standards. However, ISO does have a fast track procedure, which allows
standards that have been fully developed by other bodies, to be adopted
unamended as ISO standards.
Contact Card Standards
Plastic cards with magnetic stripe have been with us for many years and
they have played a heavy influence on the size and shape of IC cards.
At the time of their conception, the dominance of magnetic stripe cards
was so absolute that it was felt that all IC cards would have to carry
a magnetic stripe also. Physical standards of such cards were embodied
in ISO 7810 and ISO 7811 standards. They have been adopted within
ISO/IEC 7816 which remains the most relevant standards appropriate to
contact IC cards.
All cards and reader/writers obey the standard. Memory only IC cards
only obey the physical attributes of the standard whilst totally
ignoring the interface specifications. Thus memory only IC cards use
one of a number of synchronous communication protocols.
ISO/IEC 7816 is in six parts as follows:
IS 7816-1 IC Cards with contacts, physical dimensions -
This is based on ISO 7810 and sets out the physical characteristics of
the IC card. Due to the introduction of electronics, additional
characteristics are defined within ISO 7816-1 relating to ultra violet
light, X rays, surface profile contacts, mechanical strength,
electromagnetic characteristics and static electricity. It includes
items such as electromagnetic interference between magnetic stripe and
the integrated circuit (for cards which have both).
IS 7816-2 Electrical contact locations and layout -
This sets out the dimensions and location of the contacts. This part
has been under review recently to reduce some of its options,
especially in the area of embossing which has been shown to be
detrimental to embedded silicon.
IS 7816-3 Electrical specifications and communication protocols -
This sets out the electronic signals and transmission protocols of an
IC card. In particular this section describes the T=0 asynchronous
half-duplex protocol. There are two amendments to this part which deals
with T=1 block transmission protocol and protocol type selection
respectively.
IS 7816-4 Inter-industry commands for interchange -
This sets out the file structures, secure messaging and logical
channels.
IS 7816-5 Application identification -
This sets out the numbering system and the registration procedures for
application identifiers. A register of smart card issuers is kept by
KTAS in Denmark and used for application selection through the use of
unique issuer/application identifier combinations.
IS 7816-6 Inter-industry data elements -
This sets out the industry data elements such as card holders name,
expiry date etc.
7816-7 and 7816-8 -
These are at a very early stage. A working group is currently looking
at enhanced commands and security functions. It is too early to say
whether this will eventually lead to part 7 or 8 of ISO 7816.
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