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Do RFID tags have a "real" processor capable of simple computations? If so, what is the processing power of nowadays RFID processors?

qertoip
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3 Answers3

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That depends.. RFID is a very broad field.

There are very simple tags that really only send back their ID when activated using a fixed function logic. I doubt many of them are still in use.

And then there are very sophisticated ones that even run programs written in JAVA and have crypto-processors and other funky stuff built in.

One example of this is the SmartMX Mifare card from NXP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIFARE

Note: Don't confuse active and passive tags with processor/no processor tags. A tag is active if it has it's own power supply. That does not imply that it has a processor and vice versa.

Nils Pipenbrinck
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    Actually, those really basic memory-only tags are very very useful for things like inventory tracking. Their main benefit is being cheap, and they are by far the most prevalent type of RFID chip in use today. – Borealid Aug 01 '10 at 14:54
  • @Borealid: ... and the most cattle population nowadays is "equiped" with one of those also. – Romias Aug 02 '10 at 21:11
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They do not. They're just an antenna hooked to a data-providing chip, powered by the external radio waves of a reader.

Head Geek
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    They can also contain a battery either to power them completely or to provide power after they have been woken up by external radio waves in order to increase their transmitting range. – Jaka Aug 01 '10 at 14:03
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    That would be the "active" ones? I've never seen an active one, only passive ones. – Head Geek Aug 01 '10 at 14:04
  • Yes. I have seen the active one being used as a road toll payment system. But I don't know if it was a fully active or only the "Battery Assisted Passive" one. – Jaka Aug 01 '10 at 14:13
  • PowerP is a semi-passive tag, i.e. battery provides a boost when a signal from a reader is detected to power it up. This keeps the battery and hence tag small with a decent lifetime (2 years for this tag) Real active tags tend to be much bigger, but again depends on the tag. – JonWillis Feb 05 '11 at 21:38
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    -1: This answer is dubious, at best. As has been pointed out, "RFID" covers a wide range of technologies. At the very least, some form of processing is required to respond to the (relatively complex) protocols involved. There's nothing that would prohibit other forms of processing on the side. – Oliver Charlesworth Mar 16 '11 at 20:44
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Neither I do know of any RFID with real processing capabilities. However according to Wikipedia description of RFID "[m]ost RFID tags contain at least two parts. One is an integrated circuit for storing and processing information...".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification

John P
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