Net 2.0 Card
In the past, smart card vendors made and maintained a monolithic Cryptographic Service Provider (CSP) for their own smart cards. Vendors had to write complete, custom, software CSPs to enable smart card scenarios for their cards.
The new Windows Smart Card Framework architecture is layered to separate the basic required cryptography components at the top from the unique smart card hardware interfaces at the bottom; the unique hardware-specific interface for a given smart card receives the name of Minidriver (formerly called Card Module) and takes the form of a Dynamic Link Library (dll). Minidrivers leverage the common cryptographic components now included in the Windows platform.
This new architecture has been implemented in the Crypto API Next Generation (CNG) as part of the Microsoft Windows VistaTM OS, and is called the Microsoft Smart Card Key Storage Provider (KSP).
The smart card interacts easily with host applications without the need for complicated host software, and is fully integrated with the Windows environment
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Standards
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File System
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Application Development
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On-board Applications
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Cryptographic Capabilities
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Security
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Communications
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Silicon Features
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