Magnetic Card
2022-11-21

magnetic card
Magnetic cards are produced by coating and printing special materials with information storage functions on plastic substrates, using liquid magnetic materials or magnetic stripes as information carriers, and pressing and pasting magnetic stripes with a width of 6 to 14 mm on the card.
There are three tracks on the magnetic strip, the first two tracks are read-only tracks, and the third track is read-write track. According to the ISO 7811/2 standard, the first track can store 76 alphanumeric characters and become read-only after being written to the magnetic for the first time; the second track can store 37 numeric characters and is also read-only; The third magnetic track can store 104 digital characters, which are readable and writable, such as bank cards used to record information such as book balances. The information of the magnetic card is stored in the magnetic strip and can only be read by contact with the card reading device.
Because the information reading and writing of magnetic cards is relatively simple, easy to use, and low in cost, it has been developed earlier and soon entered many application fields, such as finance, finance, post and telecommunications, communications, transportation, tourism, medical care, education, etc. , hotels, etc. Taking the United States as an example, more than 200 million people have 1 billion credit cards, and the consumption is about 469.5 billion US dollars. Among them, quite a few credit cards are made of magnetic cards, which have produced very obvious economic and social benefits. However, the emergence of IC cards is challenging the status of traditional magnetic cards.
IC card is the product of the combination of VLSI technology, computer technology and information security technology. It embeds the integrated circuit chip on the designated position of the plastic substrate, and uses the storable characteristics of the integrated circuit to save, read and modify information on the chip. In many fields, magnetic cards are being replaced by a large number of IC cards. According to the form of data transmission with the outside world, IC cards are divided into two types: contact type and non-contact type.
The use of magnetic cards has a long history. Because the magnetic card is low in cost, easy to use, easy to manage, and has certain security features, its development has been supported by many world-renowned companies, especially the government departments of various countries for decades, making the application of magnetic cards very popular. all aspects. You can use a magnetic card to make a phone call, use a magnetic card to check in an airplane, use a magnetic card in the stock market, and so on.
According to data reports, the average (adult) person in the United States owns as many as four magnetic cards of various types, and Singapore also has a similar penetration rate. In some developed countries such as the United States, because magnetic cards are widely used in banking, securities and other systems, the application systems of magnetic cards are very complete. If these existing magnetic card application systems, including Visa card/MasterCard card application systems, are all replaced by The increasingly mature smart card system will cost at least hundreds of billions of dollars every year, and will seriously affect the living habits of the people and the normal operation of the application system. This is also the reason why the development of the smart card system in the United States is much slower than that in European countries. For a long period of time in the future, especially in a country with a highly developed bank magnetic card application system like the United States, the bank magnetic card application system will coexist with the smart card application system in a complementary manner. The overall security and confidentiality of smart cards is indeed better than that of magnetic cards, but a very complete magnetic card application system (such as a banking system) makes up for the shortcomings of magnetic cards in terms of their security and confidentiality, so users will not obviously feel the difference between the two. Different types of cards have different security features and affect the use.
Magnetic cards are produced by coating and printing special materials with information storage functions on plastic substrates, using liquid magnetic materials or magnetic stripes as information carriers, and pressing and pasting magnetic stripes with a width of 6 to 14 mm on the card.
There are three tracks on the magnetic strip, the first two tracks are read-only tracks, and the third track is read-write track. According to the ISO 7811/2 standard, the first track can store 76 alphanumeric characters and become read-only after being written to the magnetic for the first time; the second track can store 37 numeric characters and is also read-only; The third magnetic track can store 104 digital characters, which are readable and writable, such as bank cards used to record information such as book balances. The information of the magnetic card is stored in the magnetic strip and can only be read by contact with the card reading device.

Because the information reading and writing of magnetic cards is relatively simple, easy to use, and low in cost, it has been developed earlier and soon entered many application fields, such as finance, finance, post and telecommunications, communications, transportation, tourism, medical care, education, etc. , hotels, etc. Taking the United States as an example, more than 200 million people have 1 billion credit cards, and the consumption is about 469.5 billion US dollars. Among them, quite a few credit cards are made of magnetic cards, which have produced very obvious economic and social benefits. However, the emergence of IC cards is challenging the status of traditional magnetic cards.
IC card is the product of the combination of VLSI technology, computer technology and information security technology. It embeds the integrated circuit chip on the designated position of the plastic substrate, and uses the storable characteristics of the integrated circuit to save, read and modify information on the chip. In many fields, magnetic cards are being replaced by a large number of IC cards. According to the form of data transmission with the outside world, IC cards are divided into two types: contact type and non-contact type.
The use of magnetic cards has a long history. Because the magnetic card is low in cost, easy to use, easy to manage, and has certain security features, its development has been supported by many world-renowned companies, especially the government departments of various countries for decades, making the application of magnetic cards very popular. all aspects. You can use a magnetic card to make a phone call, use a magnetic card to check in an airplane, use a magnetic card in the stock market, and so on.
According to data reports, the average (adult) person in the United States owns as many as four magnetic cards of various types, and Singapore also has a similar penetration rate. In some developed countries such as the United States, because magnetic cards are widely used in banking, securities and other systems, the application systems of magnetic cards are very complete. If these existing magnetic card application systems, including Visa card/MasterCard card application systems, are all replaced by The increasingly mature smart card system will cost at least hundreds of billions of dollars every year, and will seriously affect the living habits of the people and the normal operation of the application system. This is also the reason why the development of the smart card system in the United States is much slower than that in European countries. For a long period of time in the future, especially in a country with a highly developed bank magnetic card application system like the United States, the bank magnetic card application system will coexist with the smart card application system in a complementary manner. The overall security and confidentiality of smart cards is indeed better than that of magnetic cards, but a very complete magnetic card application system (such as a banking system) makes up for the shortcomings of magnetic cards in terms of their security and confidentiality, so users will not obviously feel the difference between the two. Different types of cards have different security features and affect the use.