Do RFID tags have a processor?

Question

Do RFID tags have a “real” processor capable of simple computation? If so, what is the processing power of modern RFID processors?

Answer 1

They do not do this. They are just an antenna connected to a chip that provides data transmission, powered by external reader radio waves.

Answer 2

It depends ... RFID is a very wide field.

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

And then there are very complex ones that even run programs written in JAVA and have crypto processors and other funk files built in.

One example is the NXP SmartMX Mifare card.

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

Note. Do not confuse active and passive tags with / without processor tags. A tag is active if it has its own power source. This does not mean that it has a processor and vice versa.

Answer 3

I also do not know RFID with real processing capabilities. However, according to Wikipedia, the RFID description "[m] oest RFID tags contains at least two parts. One of them is an integrated circuit for storing and processing information ...".

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