Product Comparison

		STUDY

Our Reader-Test allows you to test the performance of your own reader. There are few test cases for which we show the results (the times) in absolute numbers and percentage compared to our reference reader - allowing to estimate the performance with different smart cards.

Following tests will be executed:

Reset-Test: The number of resets within two seconds.

Communication Tests: For each test case (short, medium, long) is is tested, how long it takes to transmit commands of n-Byte. Counted are the iterations within two seconds.

short: transmittance of 7 Byte
medium: transmittance of 32 Byte.
long: transmittance of 256 Byte

		INFO & KNOWLEGDE

For thesting the USB and serial card reader, we used a Windows®-PC with following tech. data:
Windows XP Professional SP2
Intel Pentium® 4 2,8 GHz
Intel 875P Chipset
1 GB DDR400 RAM
14 PC/SC Reader plugged

For the Tests with PCMCIA-card reader we used a Windows®-Notebook with following tech data:

Windows XP Professional SP2
Intel Pentium® M 1,73 GHz
512 MB DDR

The end result is a performance comparison, which shows the tested reader in relation to our reference reader (Omnikey 3121) for a specific card.

Test your smart card reader For testing your own smart card reader, we offer a service to test reader-performance on your own computer.

		INFO & KNOWLEGDE

The reference smart cards which we used for our test have all different ATRs, resulting in combination with the tested reades in different performance outcome. The performance of the "reader-card" system depends much on the used smart card - resp. its ATR. If a smart card has more than one ATRs, the reader can talk to the smart card with different parameters. In generel the first ATR is a specific one - if the card reader cannot operate with this (fast) communication parameter, the reader can get the other ATRs by warm-resetting the card. If the smart card offers no ATR (resp. parameter) which the reader can use, no further communication between reader and card is possible.

You see, the performance outcome depends much on the used smart card. Further factors, influencing the outcome, are the generell computer performance and (interesting) the number of installed and plugged smart card reader. A comparison of two reader should be done on one system, therfore.

On the following pages you find the ATRs of our test cards. On the Gemalto Classic TPC IS (GemSafeXpresso 32 k) page, you find a detailed explanation of the ATR parameters for demonstrating the ATR-Basics.

ATR Info Gemalto Classic TPC IS The Gemalto Classic TPC IS (GemSafeXpresso) contains two ATR. With first reset the ATR 1 is sent to the reader, if the reader cannot work with the parameter, the second reset..

ATR Info Siemens CardOS 4.3B ATR-Infos of the Siemens CardOS 4.3.B Smart Card. This card is a T=1 card - there are protocol specific parameters at T=1, which are discussed shortly.

Test cards

	A-Trust (trust\|sign) card (signature card)
	Safenet Model 330
	e-card (austrian health card)
	G & D Starcos SPK 2.3
	Gemalto Classic TPC IS (GemSafeXpresso 32 k)
	Maestro card (issued by Europay Austria)
	Siemens CardOS 4.3.B
	Telesec TCOS 2.0