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List:       ms-smartcardddk
Subject:    Re: Keyboard IFD
From:       "Klaus Schutz (Exchange)" <kschutz () EXCHANGE ! MICROSOFT ! COM>
Date:       1998-10-30 17:27:04
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Marko,

the main h/w problem is, that mouse, keyboard and smart card data got mixed.
In other words, smart card data coming from the keyboard line generated
mouse interrupts on the host side. This behavior was clearly machine
dependent.
Some machines did not have this problem.
(Please keep in mind that the keyboard interface was NEVER designed for high
data rates)
In addition, a user would normally continue to write/type while there is
smart card data going over the line. We had problems with loosing keyboard
key strokes. With long transmissions, this problem was even worse.
The is especially annoying when you loose the break code for ctrl, alt or
shift.

The software problem you will get under Windows 9x is, that the keyboard
driver is not designed to queue data that you want to send from the PC
to the keyboard (e.g. to turn the caps lock led on/off). When you send
data TO the smart card you should better prevent the keyboard driver from
sending data to the keyboard. This is no problem under NT, since NT uses
queuing mechanisms, but Windows 9x does not.

And so on and so on...

Regarding the recommendation of this model in PC/SC: The documents were
written at a time when nobody was aware of the implementation
problems. Again, when you deliver the kbd/smart card reader AND the PC, you
can solve the h/w problems, since you can modify whatever is necessary to
get this working. Siemens / Nixdorf is an example that this CAN work.
But they deliver both components.

Klaus U. Schutz
Microsoft

-----Original Message-----
From: Marko Larooy [mailto:mlarooy@EURONET.NL]
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 1998 11:57 PM
To: SmartCardDDK@DISCUSS.MICROSOFT.COM
Subject: Re: Keyboard IFD


Klaus,

Thank you for your response, at least Microsoft's view on this subject is
clear..
I must say I find it very strange that this type of IFD interface to the PC
is brought forward
in the PC/SC specification Part 4 as the way to go. I read on page 3 about
PS/2 Keyboard
integrated IFD's:
        "It is believed this design will become the preferred approach to
deploying
        IFDs for desktop PCs"
If there are unsolvable problems with this type of interface the above can't
be true.

Would it be possible to get more information (on the web ??) about the
problems you ran
into ? This could save us some development time us.

Regards,
Marko Larooy



Marko,

Microsoft will not provide a 'standard driver' for this kind of keyboard.
We stopped development of such a driver a while ago due to 'unsolvable'
problems with keyboard / smart card reader interaction. We do not believe
that it will be possible to provide a generic keyboard / smart card reader
that will work with existing PC hardware. If you deliver keyboards for your
own manufactured PCs you should be able to solve h/w problems. However, you
will still run into software problems under Windows 9x.

Microsoft cannot provide any kind of support for this.

Klaus U. Schutz
Microsoft

-----Original Message-----
From: Marko Larooy [mailto:mlarooy@EURONET.NL]
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 1998 1:50 AM
To: SmartCardDDK@DISCUSS.MICROSOFT.COM
Subject: Keyboard IFD


Hello,

Some weeks ago I posted a question about the keyboard IFD handler.
Since nobody responded to that, I would like to try the question again...

What I want to know is if Microsoft is going to provide a standard keyboard
driver that is capable of handling smartcard readers in(or attached to) the
keyboard.
In the PC/SC specification part 4 an extended keyboard command set is
defined for
this purpose.
If we create a keyboard device that is compliant to this PS/SC specification
would the
keyboard driver in future windows versions (98 and NT 5.0) recognize it, and
how about
Win95 and NT4 ?
If such a driver is not provided we need to start up the development of
creating one..

If someone has any information about this I would be very interested !

Thanks,
Marko Larooy.

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