Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records – Credit or identification card systems
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-24
2001-07-03
Lee, Michael G. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
Credit or identification card systems
C235S379000, C902S009000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06253999
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an electronic money safe for collectively managing electronic money representative of currency values in the form of electronic information, and more particularly to an electronic money safe for use in a transaction using IC cards.
2. Description of the Related Art
From the viewpoint of safety and convenience of settlement in the transaction such as buying and selling, a notice is recently being given to so-called electronic money utilizing electronic digital data as cashes as settling means in place of the conventional paper money, coins, etc. For this reason, banks and the like need be provided with electronic money safes for collectively managing the electronic money, and hence desire a provision of highly reliable safes.
In the settlement using the conventional electronic money, in order to secure the security, an IC card stores therein, for example, digital data representative of the electronic money, programs for transferring the electronic money, and a cryptographic processing circuit for use in the value transfer. Thus, upon the transaction, a direct data exchange of the electronic money is effected between the IC card of the user and the IC card of the part having business relations therewith. The exchange of electronic money between the two IC cards applies also to the case where a customer uses a load terminal to load electronic money from the bank side into the IC card. In this case also, a direct exchange of electronic money must be effected between the IC card of the customer and the IC card on the bank side. For this reason, the bank side possesses IC cards exceeding the number of customers expected to transact at one time, thereby enabling a direct exchange of electronic money between the IC cards of the customers and the IC card of the bank to be performed in response to the load demands of the customer. In order to meet the need for exchange of electronic money with the IC cards of the customers in this manner, use has hitherto been made of an electronic money safe storing a multiplicity of IC cards therein.
However, the electronic money safe storing a multiplicity of IC cards therein has entailed the following deficiencies. First is a problem of changing work of the cryptographic processing. In the electronic money transaction, cryptographic processing is performed upon the transfer of the electronic money although the strength of the cryptogram tends to lower year by year due to the progress of the technology and so forth. For this reason, typically, there is a need to change the cryptographic processing every several years. However, the electronic money safe using the IC cards stores therein several tens to several thousands of IC cards, so that a multiplicity of IC cards must be replaced every time the cryptographic processing is changed.
Then there arises a problem of reliability of the IC cards. The reliability (failure rate) of the IC cards being currently used is of the order of 100 fit (100 times/ 10
9
H). Providing that 1000 IC cards are consecutively used for example, the failure frequency is given as
109/ 100×1,000=10,000 H (about 1.2 years)
This means that the value may possibly become extinct about once a year.
Furthermore, there also arises a problem of service life of the IC cards. The rewritable number of times of the IC cards being currently used is of the order of 100,000, so that if one IC card is used for the transaction once a minute, its service life is given as
100,000/ 60 (min/hour)=1,667 H (about 69 days)
This means that the IC cards must be replaced about once per two months.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention there is provided an electronic money safe capable of simply dealing with a change in cryptographic processing and capable of fully ensuring a reliability and durability.
The electronic money safe of the present invention comprises a non-volatile memory, a command control unit and a communication control unit. In the non-volatile memory are arranged a plurality of IC card storage units corresponding to a plurality of IC cards storing therein electronic money representative of a currency value in the form of electronic information. The command control unit executes concurrently commands imparted to the plurality of IC card storage units arranged in the non-volatile memory to thereby logically implement a function of control of a plurality of IC cards. Upon a receipt of a single or a plurality of commands from a host apparatus, the communication control unit forms concurrently communication paths corresponding in numbers to the commands and extending to the command control unit to thereby logically implement a function of communication with the plurality of IC cards. By logically implementing the function of a plurality of IC cards by use of a single command control unit and non-volatile memory in this manner, an easy change is achieved in the case of change in cryptographic processing for use in securing the security of the electronic money, without any need for a replacement work of a multiplicity of physical IC cards.
The non-volatile memory is comprised of a memory backed up by a battery, for example, a static RAM (SRAM). For this reason, the service life can be remarkably elongated as compared with a conventional IC card using a flash memory. The electronic money safe of the present invention further comprises a plurality of trays each having a multiplex configuration in which a plurality of value control units are provided for the communication control unit, the plurality of value control units each consisting of a combination of the non-volatile memory and a command control unit. The communication control unit includes a multi-comparison control unit which allows the command control units provided in the plurality of value control units to perform the same processing for the IC card storage units in response to commands from the host apparatus, the multi-comparison control unit comparing a plurality of results of processing for judgment. By multiplexing the electronic money safe of the present invention in this manner, a reliability can remarkably be improved as compared with the case where the IC cards have been stored.
When comparing the results of processing from the plurality of value control units and detecting that all of them are coincident with one another, the multi-comparison control unit judges normal termination and posts the host apparatus on the results of processing. When comparing the results of processing from the plurality of value control units and detecting a partial non-coincidence, the multi-comparison control unit posts the host apparatus on results of processing which have coincided with each other. When comparing the results of processing from the plurality of value control units and detecting a partial non-coincidence, that is, a non-coincidence of one result of processing with the other results of processing, the multi-comparison control unit inhibits a control (a new transaction) on the value control unit which has caused non-coincidence. When comparing the results of processing from the plurality of value control units and detecting a partial non-coincidence, the multi-comparison control unit inhibits a control from the host apparatus on a tray containing the value control unit which has caused non-coincidence, and thereafter, under the control of the host apparatus, transfers electronic money stored in the non-volatile memory of the abnormal tray to the non-volatile memory of the other normal tray. By detecting a defectiveness at a part of the multiplex configuration and transferring the electronic money to the other tray in this manner, an extinction of the electronic money attributable to the multi-failures can be prevented in advance. In addition, by transferring the electronic money stored in the non-volatile memory of the abnormal tray to the non-volatile memory of the other normal tray, it becomes possible to perform the replacement and repair of
Hashimoto Shigeru
Yamamoto Koken
Armstrong Westerman Hattori McLeland & Naughton LLP
Fujitsu Limited
Fureman Jared J.
Lee Michael G.
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