Chapter 3. Basic Standards for Smart Cards

Smart cards, perhaps more than most other technologies, have been subject to tremendous pressures across their lifetime to conform to standard implementation and deployment strategies. The form factor, electrical characteristics, and model of computation are firmly established by internationally recognized standards. This has the attractive benefit of guaranteeing that no one approach can attain a monopoly or near-monopoly stranglehold on the technology (e.g., PC operating systems). However, it does encumber the use of smart cards with a tremendous load of baggage. The chances for true, revolutionary advances are greatly minimized, if not eliminated, by the need to conform to established equipment and operations trails that stretch for decades into the past.

At least three distinct approaches to standardization are present in today's smart card world: