What is a card reader

A card reader is a specialized device. It has a slot for inserting a memory card and a port for connecting to a computer. After inserting a suitable memory card into the slot, connecting the port to the computer and installing the required drivers, the computer treats the memory card as a removable memory, and thus the card can be read and written by the card reader. According to the type of compatible memory card can be divided into CF card reader, SM card reader, PCMICA card reader and memory stick reader, etc., as well as dual-slot reader can be used at the same time two or more than two cards; according to the type of port can be divided into serial port card reader (slow, rare), parallel port card reader (suitable for early motherboard computers), USB card reader (fast, easy to use). Easy to use). We all know that computers, digital products, home appliances and other different products need a common storage medium for data exchange, and the current use of (NAND) FlashRAM (flash memory) storage products is undoubtedly the most widely used. Compared with traditional memory, flash memory has the advantages of compactness, lightweight, dustproof and shockproof, and is widely used in digital cameras, MP3 players and other products. With the rapid development and popularization of digital products, one of the things we often have to do is to exchange data between digital products, card reader is to complete such a function of the product. As the name suggests, card reader is a device to read memory cards. Memory cards can now be said to be very wide range of applications, from digital cameras to MP3 Walkman, from the PDA Pocket PC to the more popular multimedia cell phones. Currently on the market more common memory cards are SD Memory (SD card) CompactFlash (CF card), MemoryStick (Sony Memory Stick), MultiMediaCard (MMC card), XD-Picture (XD card), SmartMedia (SM card, has been discontinued), IBM Microdrive (IBM Microdrive), Micro SD Card (TF Card), etc. Therefore, for ease of use, card readers are not recommended. Therefore, in order to facilitate the use of card readers are generally all-in-one products, if you have a lot of devices using different formats of flash memory cards, multi-function card readers will provide a better solution. Card readers are generally small in size, divided into two kinds of built-in and external. External ones are portable and generally use a USB port. Card reader for the computer is similar to a USB floppy drive, the actual role is more similar, just read not floppy disk, but a variety of flash memory cards.

[edit]Card reader use

Mention card reader, many people will immediately think of this product is with the digital camera and produced, but is no longer limited to the use of digital cameras, but expanded to more areas. "Card reader" as the name suggests this is a device to read data, but it can not only support the reading of data also support the writing of data. Its initial design idea is mainly to make up for the defects of the digital camera data output and produced. Due to the early USB interface is not popular, so the output port of the digital camera are connected with the computer's serial port, due to the serial port of the data transfer speed is very low, if the data is copied to the hard disk, it will cost a lot of waiting time, therefore, the card reader came into being. With the development of MP3, PDA and other digital products, a strong impetus to the development of card readers. At present, the MP3 standard 256M or 512M flash memory obviously can not meet our needs, so add 1G or higher flash memory has become our standard configuration, but if we want to copy MP3 songs to flash memory, then only through the MP3 player to carry out, and this time we need a special line, driver and software to complete, so that the MP3 player can be The portability of the MP3 player is much worse, and if we use a card reader at this time, we do not need the intervention of the MP3 player, directly to the MP3 songs stored on the flash memory, so that the MP3 becomes more convenient to use.

In addition to providing convenient data transfer for the aforementioned digital devices, card readers are now also heavily utilized for mobile data storage. In the early years of using computers, as long as a few floppy disks can be copied off the commonly used software, DOS system as long as done in a floppy disk is enough, and those small games a floppy disk can be loaded with several. Floppy drive as a standard drive device can basically meet the storage needs of people's work and study. Later, with the development of computer technology, especially the launch of the WINDOWS operating system, the software volume into a geometric progression, the standard 1.44M floppy disk for these behemoths of the poor capacity is like "a drop in the bucket". The thirst for large-capacity storage has led to hard disk drives, optical drives and a variety of compressed storage devices, such as "big belly" memory of the growing popularity of not only this, accustomed to the mobile office people want to have a lightweight and easy to carry, the data storage capacity of the "on-the-go storage" device! The popularity of external storage devices is also increasing. Therefore, there are more and more types of external storage devices, the earliest ZIP, and later there are external hard disk and so on. However, their size is not small enough to carry around or some inconvenience. Now the popular USB flash drive, such as Lanke USB flash drive, Luwen easy disk, Patriot Mini King, they will be integrated with the USB controller and flash memory chip, the volume is very small, for large-capacity data transmission is very convenient. However, the price of such products is higher, and you pay for it. If you use the card reader and memory card combination can also provide the same effect of the U disk, memory cards are mainly CF card and SM card, they all use flash memory chips, in MP3 players, digital cameras, PDA and other devices widely used. When a USB card reader is plugged into a memory card, it is equivalent to a mobile electronic hard disk. This lightweight and convenient flash memory card has become our current convenient mobile storage medium, while the card reader is the most convenient device for these flash memory to exchange data. Their performance is comparable to that of a USB flash drive and their size is not too big. In addition, this combination is extremely expandable. At present, the price of memory cards is constantly falling, so if you need to increase the capacity in the future, you can just buy a memory card, the price of which will be much cheaper than the overall electronic hard disk of the same capacity. And if you later acquire a device such as a digital camera or MP3 player, the memory card can be used directly on top, protecting your investment.

[edit]Card reader classification

Card reader from the interface point of view are: parallel port card reader, serial port card reader material, USB card reader, PCMICA card reader and IEEE 1394 card reader. The first two types of card reader due to the interface speed is slow or inconvenient to install has been basically eliminated. USB card reader is currently the most popular card reader on the market, PCMICA card reader is mainly used in notebook computers, and IEEE 1394 card reader due to the support of the interface has not been popular, the application is not very wide.

The main flash memory or multimedia cards on the market today are: TF card, SM card, CF card, MicroDrive, MemoryStick, MemoryStick PRO, MMC card, Micro SD Card, MiniSD card and SD, xD card. According to the type of flash memory they read, card readers are further categorized into single-function card readers and multi-function card readers. Single-function card reader can generally only read a type of flash card, such as TF card reader can only read TF card flash card, SM card reader can only read SM flash card, this type of card reader price is lower, generally in the 10-30 yuan; and multi-function card reader is a variety of flash cards to eat, whether it is a TF card, CF card or MemoryStick can be easily read, but this type of products The price is a little higher, depending on how many types of flash memory cards are read, the price varies between 20-60 dollars.

Several commonly used card readers:

USB-style TF dedicated card reader

Support for USB1.0 and USB2.0 ports, plug-and-play, the current market share of the most and the practicality of the strongest products on the market. The main point is than the pre-products have to be added to the SD configurator to read TF cards have a leap forward, mainly economic and practical

CRW-X type contactless card reader

Support ISO14443 TypeA/TypeB contactless CPU card and Mifare one card, built-in 2 ISO7816-3 SAM Small IC card, support a variety of communication interfaces and communication protocols, suitable for a variety of contactless IC card application system. It has novel appearance, stable performance, powerful functions, rich interfaces and strong expandability.

CRW-VI external general-purpose IC card reader is a miniature IC card reader, mainly for portable applications. According to the different ways of interface with the computer, it is divided into USB interface (CRW-VIu type) and serial interface (CRW-VIs type), which is suitable for a variety of application systems and the needs of the application environment. We can also develop specialized IC card readers for specific needs according to the needs of users.

CRW-V series IC card reader connects with computer or laptop through USB port or serial port, supports the operation of CPU card and MEMORY card, and provides dual-card reader with two card holders to choose from.

CRW-V series IC card reader is compatible with the interface function library of CRW-II/III/IV reader, which is convenient for users to upgrade their applications. It is compatible with the interface function library of CRW-II/III/IV type reader, which is convenient for users to upgrade the application system. It can be widely used in banking, insurance, corporate fee collection and medical fee collection systems.

WatchCore is a smart IC card dedicated interface chip launched to facilitate the development of embedded IC card applications, built-in IC card reader operation of all programs, suitable for a variety of specialized embedded IC device development, can be applied to smart IC card meters, water meters, gas meters, tax-control cash registers, IC card dispensers and other equipment.