Hi,
what if we built a smartcard "environmental system", a kind of
"middleware", that deals on one side with the cards and on the other side
with the (host) applications? On the cards' side, it would handle all
the specifics of smartcards. On the application side, it would offer
the smartcard services on a much higher abstraction level.
An application could be used with any smartcard that offers the
required services. (I use the term application for the program that runs
on a host and talks to a smartcard; smartcards offer services.) The
application just talks to the smartcard middleware.
In a networked world, it could be possible for the middleware to get
support from somewhere on the net in how to use a specific smartcard.
The manufacturers/issuers of smartcards could provide such a help in a
way that the middleware understands.
Standardization efforts could concentrate on the middleware and its
interfaces (to the smartcard side and the application side). No need to
standardize every bit on the cards. These interfaces could even be
service independant such that new services could be introduced easily,
without any standardization effort.
How do you think about that?
Best regards,
Harald
On Mit, 17 Mai 2000, David Corcoran wrote:
> Hi, here is a bit that I wrote up to vent on my lack of standards in the
> smartcard industry. Let me know if you agree or not.
[...]
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Linux Smart Card Developers - M.U.S.C.L.E.
(Movement for the Use of Smart Cards in a Linux Environment)
http://www.linuxnet.com/smartcard/index.html
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