
Smart Cards Lab COMPGA12 University College London
4 Hardware and Software Setup
4.1 PC/SC Interface for Smart Card Readers
PC/SC Interface in Windows
Smart card commands are called APDUs, see Section 7.
In Windows, the support for smart card commands (APDUs) is included
through the so called PC/SC interface that is included in windows (uses
winscard.dll) and does not require any installation.
The only thing that needs to be installed are drivers for specific smart
card readers.
PC/SC Interface for Linux
The equivalent for Linux is called pcsc-lite. It needs to be installed (not
tested).
4.2 Recommended Smart Card And Contactless Readers
There are many smart card readers on the market. Many are not PC/SC
compliant, many are quite expensive, and many don’t work very well. Here
is the recommended selection of inexpensive, highly functional and highly
compatible smart card readers.
1. For cards with contact, we can use a very cheap smart card reader
PC/SC Silver PA748S (also sold under the brand Alcor Micro) which
costs about 6 GBP and can be purchased on ebay. This reader covers
both bank cards and SIM cards, however one should understand that
all cheap smart card readers suffer from the ”friction” problem: when
we insert the smart card repeatedly, the contacts will become used and
the smart card might eventually become damaged.
2. For contactless cards, we recommend ACR 122U or 122T (which is
the same but smaller in size). Each of these models costs about 40-50
GBP.
3. There is also an all-in-one reader: Omnikey 5321 which costs about 80
GBP. It contains two readers in one: an ISO wired smart card, and
an contactless RFID smart card. There are also adaptors to insert a
SIM card to Omnikey 5321.
c
Nicolas T. Courtois 2009-10
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