no of pin issue- smart card chip( 6 or 8 contacts) and microcontroller(40 pin)?

Thread Starter

rohitamitpathak@gmail.com

Joined Nov 17, 2011
3
Good Evening to all,
I am a student of computer science.. for last some some days i am stuck in something, In this time i am working over smart card technology, there i saw a chip, which is a kind of microcontroller { i attached a pic for this } . I read also about microcontroller 8051 because it is widely used, this microcontroller have 40 pins ...

But
the smart card chip only have 6 or 8 contacts or pins, so i am confused what about remaining pins present in microcontroller, Is chip contacts are the pin of microcontroller?
People say that - In smart card only 5 pin (vcc, vpp, grnd, i/o,reset) are required that why other microcontroller pin omitted.
please share your knowledge with me, and let me know if anything u want to ask

Note- i attaced two pic, a microntroller or chip here.
 

Attachments

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
You can get tiny micro-controllers with only 6 pins. It is no rule that say a microcontoller must have 40 pins. On a modern microcontroller the actuall chip inside the package is very small. I did not find any number. But it is very small. The package the chip is placed inside. Is more a carrier for the connection to the outside world, than the chip itself
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
You can use the remain pins for whatever you want. You might want to add an LCD, buttons, sensors whatever you want.

I am currently working on a temperature logger. It has a temperature sensor, SD memory, buttons and an LCD.
 

Thread Starter

rohitamitpathak@gmail.com

Joined Nov 17, 2011
3
You can get tiny micro-controllers with only 6 pins. It is no rule that say a microcontoller must have 40 pins. On a modern microcontroller the actuall chip inside the package is very small. I did not find any number. But it is very small. The package the chip is placed inside. Is more a carrier for the connection to the outside world, than the chip itself
Thanks for your words!!!!!!
You mean to say- Microcontroller pins are only a medium with help of that we can pass data { voltage, data, etc .....} in/out of microcontroller...
It means i can say the picture which i pasted here- is a microcontroller of 8 pin...?
 

Thread Starter

rohitamitpathak@gmail.com

Joined Nov 17, 2011
3
You can use the remain pins for whatever you want. You might want to add an LCD, buttons, sensors whatever you want.

I am currently working on a temperature logger. It has a temperature sensor, SD memory, buttons and an LCD.
You means to say - number of pin is depend upon our requirement.... {8051 with 40 pin is a genaral structure, we can omit the pin according to our need. is this right?}
if i add a led light then we have to add a additional pin. is this correct?
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
You means to say - number of pin is depend upon our requirement.... {8051 with 40 pin is a genaral structure, we can omit the pin according to our need. is this right?}
if i add a led light then we have to add a additional pin. is this correct?
You are correct. But with a 40 pin chip your should be able to do just about anything. Also you can control more LEDs than you have pins. Lookup Charlieplexing.
 

Feign

Joined Mar 30, 2009
50
I didn't really pick out a question there from the OP.
maybe this is meant to have a question mark.
Note- i attaced two pic, a microntroller or chip here.
smart card reader = micro chip or ASIC (application specific integrated circuit)

microcontroller implies a management or overseer role and such, where a Card reader performs a specific function.

A smart card reader microchip might contain a microcontroller among it's hardware.
And a micro controller chip, may have on board smart card functions. (this last bit maybe confusing)
 
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