What is Magnetic Encoding?
Magnetic Encoding is a technology that has been around and worked very well for many years. Encoding works by using a magnetic head to write bits to a magnetic stripe. According to ISO standards there are three tracks on a magnetic stripe. The information is written to the stripe when either the card passes over the head or the head is moved over the card. How many bits are written to the track is measured in BPI (Bits Per Inch). Track 1 and 3 are written at 210BPI and Track 2 is written at 75BPI. Each track is made up of four elements the Start Sentinel, Personalization Data, End Sentinel and LRC. The start sentinel is a character that tells the card reader that card data is to follow. The personalization data is the personal information that the issuer places on the card. The personalization data includes things like name, account number and expiration date for example. The end sentinel tells the card reader that it has reached the end of the personalization data. The LRC (Longitudin
