Renesas Technology Corp.

Hitachi Ulsi Systems Co., Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd.

Other

Konishiroku Photo Industry Co., Ltd.

Renesas Technologies Corporation

Haruji Ishihara

Hirotaka Nishizawa

Atsushi Shiraishi

Yosuke Yukawa

Masachika Masuda

Tamaki Wada

Kenji Osawa

Junichiro Osako

Kazunori Furusawa

Kouichi Kanemoto

Kazuo Yoshizaki

Satoshi Hatakeyama

Yousuke Yukawa

Kazuo Shiozawa

Michio Yagi

Ryushi Shimokawa

Kazuhisa Aratame

Kijiro Suzuki

Takashi Totsuka

Takashi Tsunehiro

Nagamasa Mizushima

Motoyasu Tsunoda

Shinya Iguchi

An IC card has a card substrate having semiconductor integrated circuit chips mounted thereon and a plurality of connector terminals formed thereon. The connector terminals are exposed from a casing. The connector terminals are laid out in plural sequences in staggered form between sequences adjacent to one another forward and backward as viewed in an IC card inserting direction. Owing to the adoption of the staggered layout, a structure or configuration wherein the amounts of protrusions of socket terminals of a card socket are changed and the socket terminals are laid out in tandem, can be adopted with relative ease. If a connector terminal arrangement of a downward or low-order IC card is adopted as a specific connector terminal sequence as it is, whereas a function dedicated for an upward or high-order IC card is assigned to another staggered connector terminal arrangement, then backward compatibility can also be implemented with ease.

IC card

A multifunction IC card (MFC) has compatibility with a multimedia card, an SD card, etc. in that connector terminals (#through #) are disposed on a card substrate () in two rows in a zigzag fashion, and realizes multifunction facilities in that a memory card unit () and an SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card unit () are respectively connected and mounted to predetermined terminals of the connector terminals (#through #). The memory card unit () and the SIM card unit () are respectively separately provided with areas for storing secret codes for security. Thus, one IC card is capable of implementing multifunction facilities different in security level. Owing to the adoption of a plural-column layout corresponding to a form typified by the zigzag fashion in an array of the connector terminals, a relatively simple structure can be adopted in a card slot.

A multifunction IC card (MFC) has compatibility with a multimedia card, an SD card, etc. in that connector terminals (#through #) are disposed on a card substrate () in two rows in a zigzag fashion, and realizes multifunction facilities in that a memory card unit () and an SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card unit () are respectively exclusively connected and mounted to predetermined terminals of the connector terminals (#through #). The memory card unit () and the SIM card unit () are respectively separately provided with areas for storing secrete codes for security. Thus, one IC card is capable of implementing multifunction facilities different in security level. Owing to the adoption of a plural-column layout corresponding to a form typified by the zigzag fashion in an array of the connector terminals, a relatively simple structure can be adopted in a card slot, wherein the amounts of protrusion of slot terminals in a card slot are alternately changed in association with a zigzag section, and the slot terminals are disposed in a row in parallel as a whole.

Integrated circuit card having staggered sequences of connector terminals

On an adapter mounting portionhaving a projecting cross section which is formed on a capof a small-sized memory card, a recessed portion of an adapterside is fitted so that both parts are formed as an integral unit in a replaceable manner. Accordingly, the small-sized memory cardcan maintain the dimensional compatibility with respect to existing memory cards whereby the small-sized memory cardcan be used also in equipment which is designed to cope with the existing memory cards.

Memory card with connecting portions for connection to an adapter

Memory card with a cap having indented portions

Memory card with an adaptor

A storage device includes a tamper-resistant module and a flash memory. In correspondence with a command, a CPU inside the tamper-resistant module judges the security of data received from the outside, then recording the data as follows: High-security and small-capacity data is recorded into a memory inside the tamper-resistant module. High-security and large-capacity data is encrypted, then being recorded into the flash memory. Low-security data is recorded as it is into the flash memory. This recording method permits large-capacity data to be stored while ensuring a security (i.e., a security level) corresponding thereto.

Storage device including a non-volatile memory

On an adapter mounting portionhaving a projecting cross section which is formed on a capof a small-sized memory card, a recessed portion of an adapterside is fitted so that both parts are formed as an integral unit in a replaceable manner Accordingly, the small-sized memory cardcan maintain the dimensional compatibility with respect to existing memory cards whereby the small-sized memory cardcan be used also in equipment which is designed to cope with the existing memory cards.

Memory card

Growing community of inventors

Kawaguchi, Japan

Haruji Ishihara