Vocabulary 3

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Administration key - a special "master key" by which the other keys are encrypted.

ASIC - an "application specific IC". Any IC (integrated chip) that is made especially for an application, is called "an ASIC". There are application specific chips in phone cards, in wrist watches, and in the official cards, etc.

Atmel card - see Funcard.

ATR protocol - "answer to reset" T=0 ISO-7816 - the way smartcards communicate. Almost all smartcards use this protocol or some variation of it, when they operate. For example phone cards, satellite TV cards, pirate cards, etc. A "smartmouse interface" (standard smartcard interface) communicate using this protocol. Note that when PIC cards are programmed, this programming does not follow this ISO protocol.

Auto-updating cards - see "Self-updating cards"

C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7, C8 - the names of the terminals on any ISO-7816-compatible smartcard.

Chip - black electronic thing with pins on it. It consists of a photographically P- and N-doped etched semiconductor wafer connected to pins, and everything moulded into black resin (plastic). A "wafer card" consists of the wafer and a gold pad glued to it (with some gold bondings (threads) in between).

Data logger - a device that logs the data between a smartcard reader and a smartcard, in both directions, and sends it to the serial port of a PC. See also Smartmouse (which allows communication between RS-232 and a smartcard) and Season (which allows communication between RS-232 and a smartcard reader).

DES - the 56-bit encryption algorithm used in the Eurocrypt system.

DES-cracker. Any piece of software (or machine) that counts through all the 2^56 combinations in the DES key space, in order to find the right key.

DIL-chip - chip with two rows of easy-to-solder pins that goes through the circuit-board, rather than the small surface-soldered SMD-chips (or SOIC). DIL stands for Dual In-Line package. See also SMD.
Encryption algorithm - a way to scramble information and make it unaccessable to anybody that doesn't know the number ("key") on which it is based. For example, if I encrypt HELLO by adding each letter with 1, I get IFMMP. Adding each letter with 1 is then the encryption algorithm. Of course, most encryption algorithms are much more complex than that.

EEPROM - a type of computer memory - "electrically erasable & programmable ROM". The data memory inside the single-chip computer PIC16c84 is of this type. The memory chip 24LC16 uses memory of an EEPROM type. EEPROM memory keeps the contents after the power is turned off (unlike the RAM work memory in a computer). But it can also be reprogrammed many times, unlike EPROM or ROM memory. Flash memory works in the same way as EEPROM memory but it uses a more modern technique. Sometimes people include both EEPROM and Flash memory when they say "EEPROM memory". A more correct term would be "NVRAM".

Funcard - a programmable smartcard sold blank, which uses an Atmel processor instead of the PIC1684 chip.

HEX file - generally a file with hexadecimal numbers. They usually end with .HEX. Program for PIC processors and contents of EEPROM chips are unfortunately by tradition stored in hexadecimal format instead of normal binary format, which makes them slightly more than twice as big as they normally would be (if a HEX file is 2200 bytes, it requires only 1024 bytes (or 8192 bits) when programmed into the chip. To make everything even more idiotic for no reason at all, HEX files can be either 8-bit (which really means 16-bit) or 16-bit (which really means 32-bit). All programming utilities understand 8-bit HEX - also called INH8M, but many also understand 16-bit HEX.(See FAQ about HEX)
Hexadecimal - a number system with 16 digits (0123456789ABCDEF) instead of 10 (0123456789) or 2 (01). 10 equals $0A, 100 equals $64, 255 equals $FF, 256 equals $100, 65535 equals $FFFF etc. To indicate that it's a HEX number, the dollar sign is used. Communists instead use H or Ox to make things more complicated. .(See FAQ about HEX)

ISO-7816 - the international standard for smartcards, used in phone cards, satellite TV cards, GSM cards, etc. It specifies card size, durability, pin configuration, voltage levels and communication speed etc - therefore people might refer to different things when they say "ISO-7816". For example, a British phone card can be inserted in a Videocrypt decoder, and the number of units left on the card is displayed on the TV screen, thanks to the standardized communication protocol specified in ISO-7816! The way PIC chips are programmed is of course not specified in ISO-7816. See also "ATR".

Key - a secret number on which the encryption algorithm is based.

LNB - the thing in the middle of the satellite dish, receiving the signals from the satellites. The dish reflects and focuses these signals right onto the LNB.

Man key- short for Management Key.

Management key - see Administration Key.

Memory - all computer memories consists of a number of memory locations. Each memory location can hold a value between 0 and 255 if the memory is a traditional 8-bit memory (2^8=256). Internally it is made out of of 8 bits that can be either 0 (power off) or 1 (power on) - hence the 256 different combinations. (Sometimes, modern computer programs may interpret many bytes at the time, for example 16 or 32 bits at the time instead of .

MPEG - motion JPEG, a compression method to describe a changing image (like a TV image) with as little information as possible. MPEG-3 (or MP3) is the MPEG method of compressing audio. ZIP is another compression method, but it's general for any type of data, unlike MPEG which is specialized to be efficient on moving images (and MP3 for audio). PAL TV consists of 24 frames per second, and sometimes MPEG doesn't describe the full frame, but instead only describes what has changed between two similar frames! With MPEG, an incredible compression ratio of 2000% or better can be achieved on moving images - the more European the film is, the better the compression. Ordinary picture compression techniques are also used - it's based on JPEG which is a lossy (meaning you loose some of the information in the picture compared to before the compression, but of course you can compensate for that by using a better resolution to start with) compression technique for steady images. Since MPEG is a computer-based compression method, it can of course only be used on digitally broadcast TV channels. With digital TV, 20 channels transmit on the same transponder/frequency thanks to MPEG2! (Many people think MPEG2 is a TV format such as PAL, D2MAC or NTSC, but it's not. It's used in many different digital TV formats)

Original cards - original cards are of course cards that are issued by the channel to the subscribers.

PAL - the TV system used in Europe. In America, NTSC is used.

PCB - printed circuit board (i.e. the card itself, on which you solder the chips)

Phoenix interface - a device with the exact same functionality as a smartmouse, but not smartmouse-compatible. Originally used to re-activate a certain version of the original Sky cards (hence the name).

Processor - the main part or "brain" of a computer. It reads a program stored in a memory, and does what it says in there. It can calculate mathematically, create electronic signals on it's pins,and change the contents of memory locations.

Program - a sequence of numbers (ranging between 0 and 255 if it's an 8-bit program) intended for interpretation by a processor. The program must be stored in a memory, so the processor can read and execute it. (In personal computers, programs are normally stored on the harddrive, but loaded into RAM memory when they are going to be executed. In microcontrollers, the program is stored in ROM (if the chip is OTP) or EEPROM memory where it's also executed). Each number represents an instruction for the processor, for example 35, 40, 159 may mean "copy the contents of memory cell 40 to I/O pin 2", 194 201 may mean "jump to location 201 in memory and continue to interpret from there", or 4, 120, 84,44 may mean "divide the contents of memory cell 120 by 84 and put the result in memory location 44".
Programs are processor specific, so a program for a PC-processor (such as the word processor Microsoft Word) can't be understood by a PIC-processor or a MacIntosh processor (i.e. Motorola processor). However, if the programming language is compiling, the same source code can be used to make both a PC and a MacIntosh version (for an explaination, see under "programming languages").

RB6, RB7 etc - names on the different I/O pins on the PIC1684 chip. The programmer and the PCB needs to be ready for to the "RB" or "I/O-pin" that the PIC program is made for.

Season interface - an interface that enables communication between an ISO-7816 card slot and the RS-232 serial port in a computer. WallBanger is a PC program that uses a Season interface to decrypt TV channels.
Secure microcontrollers. Microcontrollers that withstand a hacker's attempts to extract the Program Code which has been programmed into it.

Self-updating cards. Cards that don't need to be updated when a channel changes a key. A card can be autoupdating on all or just some channels. The autoupdating feature comes from the fact that one of the management keys is programmed into the card. Knowing this, the card can itself calculate the new update code without much processing power. NOTE! It is possible that the TV company finds the management key and "kills" (stops using) it. In such case, the autoupdating card using this man key, may stop working. Autoupdating HEX files are normally not publically. The reason for secrecy is that if the TV company found out which management keys are known, they can kill it. And the management key can easily be extracted from anyone that holds the HEX file, since HEX files are commonly not encrypted

Smartmouse interface - an interface used so a PC can communicate with a smartcard (rather than programming a PIC card). Smartmouse interfaces are used to communicate with standard ATR-smartcards, and can also be used to program the 2416 chip on cards, if no PIC-programmer able to program this chip is available. Smartmouse interfaces are good for sending and receiving information to/from a smartcard, but if you want to reprogram the software in a PIC card, you need a PIC programmer.

SMD - Surface Mounted Device. If a chip is SMD, it means that it doesn't have pins that go through the PCB, but are soldered directly to the component side using special equipment. SMD offer a cheaper manufacturing process for large series, but is less well suited for hobbyists.

Software - program.
Wafer cards - literally it means wafer thin cards, i.e. real smartcards without soldered-on chips. . Just like a chip, a wafer card has a flat silicon "wafer" built-in, with tiny wires connected to the gold plated terminals on the smartcard.