Do RFID tags have a processor?

Question

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

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

They do not. They're just an antenna hooked to a data-providing chip, powered by the external radio waves of a reader.

Answer 3

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