SpringCard introduces new SDK for NFC-enabled PC/SC readers

It’s now the final countdown before the launch of new SpringCard NFC products, H512 and NFC’Roll. Both products are not only able to read/write NFC Tags, but they also introduce NFC peer-to-peer communication and an innovative Card emulation mode.

The developers who already have an early release of either product, or who want to start evaluating the development process, are welcomed to download the first version of the SDK, which has been made available today, together with its documentation.

The NFC SDK for PC/SC includes
NFcTool, a Tag read/write Utility,
NFcBeam, implementing the NFC Forum ‘Simple NDEF Exchange Protocol’ (SNEP) on top of NFC Forum LLCP (Logical Link Control Protocol), itself on top of NFC-DEP, i.e. the NFCIP1 peer-to-peer layer (ISO 18092 chapter 12). A typical use-case would be to retrieve a contact entry (VCard) from an Android smartphone, or to push a SmartPoster from the PC to the smartphone,
NfcTagEmul, showing how easy it is for either H512 or NFC’Roll to emulate a NFC Forum Tag (type 2 or type 4). This makes it possible to push a SmartPoster, URI, Text, VCard… from the PC to the smartphone, as smoothly as if the phone was reading a static Tag,
– and much more!

Edit 15/10/2013: starting with PC/SC SDK version 2.12, the NFC extensions are now included in the PC/SC SDK itself. Please read this article for details.

Those software are available with complete source (C# for .NET) in the SDK. Please download and read PMD2228: NFC SDK for PC/SC – Getting Started Guide for a guided tour and a few technical details.

Click here to download SpringCard NFC SDK for PC/SC

The reference manual for operating the readers from PC/SC applications is here: PMD2176: H512 (and NFC’Roll) Developer’s Reference Manual.

An installer is also available (SQ2211: QuickStart for H512 and NFC’Roll) for people who want to try the products but don’t need the full SDK.

Warning: a few changes have been on the specifications since the Alpha version of the firmware (1.6x branch). Products shall be updated to firmware v1.70 in order to be compliant with the final specifications, and to work with this SDK. Current 1.7x branch doesn’t include peer-to-peer in Target mode (only Initiator mode is currently implemented). This will be added in 1.8x branch.