JPH01166281A - Portable electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the need for management of identifying information at the application side and to reduce the load on a portable electronic equipment by adding the identifying information to area defining information of an IC card to identify code information with which data are stored. CONSTITUTION:A data memory 12 is roughly divided into an area defining information area 121 and a data area 122. The area 121 stores the area defining information which defines the area 122 in plural parts. The defining information which defines the division of one area consists of an area number which defines a number intrinsic to an area, a head address which defines the position of the area, and an area size which defines the size of the area. At the same time, the identifying information is added to each area defining information to identify the code information with which the data is stored in an area defined by the area defining information. In such constitution of a memory, a reference is given to the corresponding identifying information when access is given to the memory to know the code information with which the relevant area is stored.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to erasable non-volatile memory and C
The present invention relates to a portable electronic device called an IC card, which has a built-in IC (integrated circuit) chip having a control element such as a PU.

(Prior Art) Recently, as a new portable data storage medium, EEF
2. Description of the Related Art IC cards have been developed that include a built-in IC chip that has an erasable nonvolatile memory such as a ROM and a control element such as a CPU. This type of IC card accesses a built-in memory using a built-in control element, and inputs and outputs necessary data in response to a request from an external device.

The memory of such an IC card is defined as being divided into a plurality of areas depending on the nature of the stored data or the intended use, and each area is used as an access unit.

Data may be stored in each of the areas thus divided and defined using code information that is easy to handle depending on the nature of the stored data or its intended use. Therefore, in such a case, when performing data processing by accessing each area of the memory, it is necessary to identify what kind of code information the data is stored in each area of the memory.

Conventionally, the application side stores identification information to identify the code information in which data is stored in each area of the memory, and based on this identification information, the application side stores identification information to identify the code information in which data is stored in each area of the memory. It is designed to identify whether it is stored or not.

However, with this method of storing identification information on the application side to identify what kind of code information is stored in each area of the memory, for example, identification information is stored for each type of IC card. Therefore, there were problems such as the management of identification information on the application side being troublesome and the burden on the application side increasing.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, the present invention is not a method in which the application side stores identification information for identifying what kind of code information is stored in each area of the memory. This was done to solve the problem that managing identification information on the application side is troublesome and increases the burden on the application side. To provide a portable electronic device that eliminates the need to store identification information for identifying whether an application is running, eliminates the need for management of identification information on an application side, and reduces the burden on the application side. With the goal.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention includes an erasable non-volatile memory and a control section for reading and writing data to the non-volatile memory. The nonvolatile memory is divided into at least two areas, and at least one of these areas is an area definition information area, and the area definition information is stored in the area definition information area. A portable electronic device that defines the other divided areas by storing the stored area definition information, the area definition information including a code that defines the area defined by the area definition information. It is characterized by adding identification information that can identify whether data is stored.

(Function) By adding identification information to the area definition information that can identify what kind of code information is used to store data in the area defined by the area definition information, each area of the nonvolatile memory can be accessed. When doing so, by referring to the identification information, it is possible to easily identify what kind of code information is used to store data in that area.

Therefore, there is no need for the application to store identification information to identify what kind of code information is stored in each area, so there is no need for the application to manage identification information, and the application side can reduce the burden of

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the configuration of a card handling device used as a terminal device in a home banking system or shopping system, to which an IC card as a portable electronic device according to the present invention is applied. That is, this device enables an IC card 1 to be connected to a control section 3 consisting of a CPU or the like via a card reader/writer 2, and also connects a keyboard 4, a CRT display device 5, a printer 6, and a floppy disk device to the control section 3. It is constructed by connecting 7.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the IC card 1, which includes a control element (for example, a CPU) 11 as a control unit, a data memory 12, a program memory 13, and a device for electrical contact with the card reader/writer 2. The contact portion 14 includes the portions within the broken line (control element 11, data memory 12, program memory 13).
) is composed of one IC chip (or multiple IC chips) and is embedded within the IC card body. The program memory 13 is composed of, for example, a mask ROM, and stores a control program for the control element 11 and the like. The data memory 12 is used to store various data, and is composed of an erasable nonvolatile memory such as an EEPROM.

The data memory 12 is largely divided into an area definition information area 121 and a data area 122, as shown in FIG. 1, for example. Area definition information area 121 stores area definition information that defines dividing data area 122 into a plurality of areas. The area definition information that divides and defines one area includes an area number that defines a unique number for the area, a start address that defines the position of the area in the data area, and an area size that defines the size of the area. Each piece of area definition information is appended with identification information for identifying what kind of code information is used to store data in the area defined by the area definition information. In the example of m1 diagram,
For example, the start address of area [01] is address AO1,
The area size is So1 byte, and the identification information is ASC.
This indicates that it is a II code. Also, area [0
2] start address is address A02, area size is S0
It is 2 bytes, indicating that the identification information is a HEX code.

Note that the above identification information may be written at the same time as writing the area definition information, or may be written after writing the area definition information.

In this way, by adding identification information to the area definition information that can identify what kind of code information is used to store data in the area defined by the area definition information, each area of the data memory 12 can be When accessing, by referring to the corresponding identification information, it is possible to easily identify what kind of code information is used to store data in that area. Therefore, unlike in the past, it is no longer necessary for the application to store identification information to identify what kind of code information is stored in each area, so there is no need to manage identification information on the application side. , and the burden on the application side can be reduced.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention, there is no need for the application to store identification information for identifying what kind of code information is stored in each area of the memory. Therefore, it is possible to provide a portable electronic device that does not require management of identification information on the application side and can reduce the burden on the application side.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The figures are for explaining one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the internal structure of the data memory, FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing the structure of the IC card, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the structure of the IC card. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a handling device. 1... IC card (portable electronic device), 2... Card reader/writer, 11... Control element (control unit),
12...Data memory (non-volatile memory), 13...
- Program memory, 121...Area definition information area, 122...Data area. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] (1) It has an erasable non-volatile memory and a control unit for reading and writing data to the non-volatile memory, selectively inputting and outputting data from the outside, and the nonvolatile memory is divided into at least two areas, and at least one of these areas is an area definition information area, and by storing area definition information in the area definition information area, the stored area definition A portable electronic device that defines the other divided areas by information, wherein the area definition information can identify what kind of code information is used to store data in the area defined by the area definition information. 1. A portable electronic device characterized in that identification information is added thereto. (2) The code information is ASCII, HEX, OCT,
The portable electronic device according to claim 1, characterized in that it is a DEC code or the like. (3) The portable electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the identification information is added when storing the area definition information. (4) The portable electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the identification information is added after storing the area definition information.