Smart Card Reader

Device Family Support

• Virtex-5 FXT
• Virtex-5 LX
• Virtex-5 LXT
• Virtex-5 SXT
• Virtex-4 FX
• Virtex-4 LX
• Virtex-4 SX
• Spartan-3A
• Spartan-3E
• Spartan-3

Implements an interface and controller for communicating between smart cards and host systems using the AMBA Advanced Peripheral Bus (APB). The SCR-APB supports the ISO/IEC 7816-3:1997(E) and EMV2000 4.0 specifications, which define the electrical signals and transmission protocols for smart cards (also known as integrated circuit cards). It acts as a communication controller, passing data to and from the host system and the smart card. It is fully-featured, and can activate and deactivate cards, perform cold/warm resets, handle ATR response reception, and execute other essential functions.
The SCR-APB consists of the core smart card reader logic with a wrapper for the APB. (Support for other bus interfaces is available.) The core is fully synchronous for easier testing and is designed for efficient FPGA implementation. For a Xilinx Spartan-3E, for example, it requires just 435 slices, 54 I/Os, and operates at 93 MHz.

Key Features

• Supports the ISO/IEC 7816-3:1997(E) and EMV2000 4.0 specifications
• Performs functions needed for complete smart card sessions, including:
  - Card activation and deactivation
  - Cold/warm reset
  - Answer to Reset (ATR) response reception
  - Data transfers to and from the card
• Extensive interrupt support system
• Adjustable clock rate and bit (baud) rate
• Configurable automatic byte repetition; Automatic convention detection
• Adjustable FIFOs for Receive and Transmit buffers (up to 128 characters) with threshold; Configurable timing functions
• Supports synchronous and any other non-ISO 7816 and non-EMV’96 cards.