Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/ – Intrasystem connection – Bus expansion or extension
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-17
2004-10-19
Hoff, Marc S. (Department: 2857)
Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/
Intrasystem connection
Bus expansion or extension
C710S313000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06807597
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an integrated controller for the detecting and operating one or more expansion cards. More specifically, the present invention relates to an integrated controller for detecting and controlling PC Cards (16-bit PCMCIA cards and 32 bit-CardBus cards), and smart cards. Particular utility of the present invention is to provide an integrated controller for mobile computing devices, e.g., laptop computers, etc, although other utilities are contemplated herein.
DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
The need for security and enhanced privacy is increasing as electronic forms of identification replace face-to-face and paper-based ones. The emergence of the global Internet, and the expansion of the corporate network to include access by customers and suppliers from outside the firewall, have accelerated the demand for solutions based on public-key technology. A few examples of the kinds of services that public key technologies enable are secure channel communications over a public network, digital signatures to ensure image integrity and confidentiality, and authentication of a client to a server (and visa-versa).
Smart cards are a key component of the public-key infrastructure that Microsoft is integrating into the Windows platform because smart cards enhance software-only solutions such as client authentication, logon, and secure e-mail. Smart cards are essentially a convergence point for public key certificates and associated keys because they provide tamper-resistant storage for protecting private keys and other forms of personal information; isolate security-critical computations involving authentication, digital signatures, and key exchange from other parts of the system that do not have a “need to know”; and enable portability of credentials and other private information between computers at work, home, or on the road.
It is estimated that the smart card will become an integral part of the Windows platform because smart cards will enable new breeds of applications in the same manner that the mouse and CD-ROM did when they were first integrated with the Personal Computer (PC). Incompatibility among applications, cards, and readers has been a major reason for the slow adoption of smart cards outside of Europe. Interoperability among different vendors' products is a necessary requirement to enable broad consumer acceptance of smart cards, and for corporations to deploy smart cards for use within the enterprise.
ISO 7816, EMV, and GSM
In order to promote interoperability among smart cards and readers, the International Standards Organization (ISO) developed the ISO 7816 standards for integrated circuit cards with contacts. These specifications focused on interoperability at the physical, electrical, and data-link protocol levels. In 1996, Europay, MasterCard, and VISA (EMV) defined an industry-specific smart card specification that adopted the ISO 7816 standards and defined some additional data types and encoding rules for use by the financial services industry. The European telecommunications industry also embraced the ISO 7816 standards for their Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) smart card specification to enable identification and authentication of mobile phone users.
While all of these specifications (ISO 7816, EMV, and GSM) were a step in the right direction, each was either too low-level or application-specific to gain broad industry support. Application interoperability issues such as device-independent APIs, developer tools, and resource sharing were not addressed by any of these specifications.
PC/SC Workgroup
The PC/SC (Personal Computer/Smart Card) Workgroup was formed in May 1996 in partnership with major PC and smart card companies: Groupe Bull, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Schlumberger, and Siemens Nixdorf. The main focus of the workgroup has been to develop specifications that solve the previously mentioned interoperability problems. The PC/SC specifications are based on the ISO 7816 standards and are compatible with both the EMV and GSM industry-specific specifications. By virtue of the companies involved in the PC/SC Workgroup, there is broad industry support for the specifications and a strong desire to move them onto an independent-standards tract in the future.
Since its founding and initial publication of the specifications, additional members have joined the PC/SC Workgroup. New members include Gemplus, TBM, Sun Microsystems, Toshiba, and Verifone.
Microsoft's Approach
Microsoft's approach consists of the following:
A standard model for interfacing smart card readers and cards with PCs
Device-independent APIs for enabling smart card-aware applications
Familiar tools for software development
Integration with Windows and Windows NT platforms
Having a standard model for how readers and cards interface with the PC enforces interoperability among cards and readers from different manufacturers. Device-independent APIs serves to insulate application developers from differences between current and future implementations. Device-independence also preserves software development costs by avoiding application obsolescence due to underlying hardware changes.
The most popular method currently being used to interface a smart card with a notebook computer is to use a PCMCIA Type II smart card reader/writer (FIG.
1
). PCMCIA smart card readers are currently available from companies such as Gemplus, SCM Microsystems and Tritheim Technologies, to name a few. The end user cost for these smart card readers is typically around $150. The cost of the reader is a major portion to the cost of the overall security solution. The adapter card
104
in
FIG. 1
depicts the major functional blocks of a conventional smart card reader. The PCIC Host Interface block of the smart card reader provides the electrical interface to the PC Card connector (
106
which in turn connects to the PC Card controller
102
. Additional logic is provided to control the interaction between the smart card and the software application. However, as noted above, this solution carries a significant per unit cost, and thus, is an unattractive alternative to large-scale migration to smart card compatibility.
Thus, there exists a need to provide an integrated host controller that provides PC Card, smart card, and Passive smart card adapter operability. Moreover, there exists a need to provide an integrated controller that can replace existing motherboard-mounted PC Card host controllers, without having to retool or redesign the motherboard.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide an integrated PC Card and Smart card controller suitable to replace conventional PC Card controllers for integration into current PC motherboard technology.
It is another object to provide a controller as above that is simultaneously fully compatible with PC Card specifications.
It is still another object to provide a Smart card controller, as above, that has an identical pinout arrangement as existing PC Card controllers, thereby permitting the controller to be directly integrated onto a PC motherboard without redesigning and/or retooling costs.
It is another object of the present invention to provide logic and methodology to detect the presence of a smart card or a Passive smart card adapter utilizing existing PC Card specified signals.
In one aspect, the present invention provides a method of detecting the presence of an expansion card using conventional PC Card specification signal lines, during the initial card detection sequence. The method comprising the steps of determining the signal state of a first and second card detection signal lines; determining the signal state of a first and second voltage select signal lines; determining if said first and/or second card detection signal lines, or said first and/or second voltage select signal lines, comprise a signal state that is reserved by a PC Card signal specification; and determining the signal state of a predetermined unused PC Card signal line, relative to said rese
Brayden Richard
Huang Yishao Max
Oh Hyang-Kyun
2Micro International Limited
Grossman Tucker Perreault & Pfleger PLLC
Hoff Marc S.
Kim Paul
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