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Tritheim SmartPort
The Tritheim SmartPort smart card reader attaches to a serial, parallel, PCMCIA or USB port. Like Aladdins ASESoft, the Tritheim Smart Card Development System (SCDS) offers a high-level interface to Tritheims own smart cards and a low-level interface to arbitrary ISO 7816 cards.
A unique feature of the Tritheim system is that the reader itself contains an internal smart card. The internal card is addressed as Card 2 while the inserted card is addressed as Card 1. This clearly sets the stage for multicard systems such as e-commerce servers which will contain many merchant cards.
The high-level interface to the Tritheim reader and card treats the smart card as a floppy disk with password-protected files. Both linear and circular files are supported in this metaphor. Records in circular files can be read and written sequentially and randomly. The interface is implemented as a Windows DLL.
The following are the functions on the high-level disk-like interface:
As an alternative to passwords, Tritheim cards and the high-level interface also supports DES-based challenge/response authentication to gain file access. The DES extension API includes the following functions:
The low-level interface to the Tritheim reader supports any ISO 7816 card in either T=0 or T=1 mode. The following are the functions on this API:
Advanced Card Systems ACR20
The Advanced Card Systems ACR20 reader handles both memory and microprocessor cards on a serial interface. The reader will talk T=0 or T=1 to ISO 7816 microprocessor cards. Interestingly, the ACR20 takes a daughter board that will internally accept up to three additional smart cards so that the ACR20 can act as a merchant terminal.
The API for the ACR20 consists of the following functions:
There are also 18 functions on the interface that support access to memory cards.
The Protekila Smart Card Reader Library
The Protekila Smart Card Reader library is a very simple C-language DOS and Windows interface to their smart card readers. Here is the most parsimonious of all smart card reader APIs known to the authors:
get_atr_respond(char *atr) send_cmd_in(char *command) card_reader_status(char *status) card_power_off(char *str)
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