Hi Oan,
My name is Johnny (a friend of Boyd), I saw him respond to your question and I think it is very interesting to me so I would like to help explain the concept of the smart card for you and hope it would help you. I'm currently working as Web Design in the same team with Boyd.
A smart card is a standard credit card-sized plastic token within which a microchip has been embedded. This chip is the engine room of the smart card, the chip come in two broad varieties: memory-only chips, with storage space for data, and with a reasonable level of built-in security; and microprocessor chips which, in addition to memory, embody a processor controlled by a card operating system, with the ability to process data onboard, as well as carrying small programs capable of local execution. The main storage area in such cards is normally EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), which - subject to defined security constraints - can have its content updated, and which retains current contents when external power is removed. Newer smart card chips may also have maths co-processors integrated into the microprocessor chip, able to perform quite complex encryption routines relatively quickly.
A smart card is therefore characterised uniquely by its chip, with its ability to store much more data (currently up to about 32,000 bytes) than is held on a magnetic stripe (Master Card and Visa card), all within an extremely secure environment. These security features built into smart card chips are amongst the most sophisticated of their type available in the commercial world. Data residing in the chip can be protected against external inspection or alteration, so effectively that the vital secret keys of the cryptographic systems used to protect the integrity and privacy of card-related communications can be held safely against all but the most sophisticated forms of attack. The ingenuity of the cryptographers further supplements the physical security of the chip, ensuring that penetrating one card's security does not compromise an entire card scheme.
It is because of these security and data storage features that smart cards are rapidly being embraced as the consumer token of choice in many areas of the public sector and commercial worlds. The Internet, in particular, is focussing the need for online identification and authentication between parties who cannot otherwise know or trust each other, and smart cards - coupled with effective cardholder verification techniques - are believed to be the most efficient and portable way of enabling the new world of e-trade. Interoperability is the key requirement to facilitate universal consumer acceptability: the ability of a card function developed by one organisation to be used without difficulty in schemes owned and operated by many organisations. So it is that the current world population of smart cards of some 1.7 billion is set to increase to 4 billion or more cards within the next 3-4 years.