A fairly extensive overview of the smart card technology, covering issues ranging from its history to the hardware, communication protocols, programming, and business uses. Another plus is that this book is the only one that can be found in stores. The book contains a tear-off post card with an offer of free Smart Card emulation software for PC/Windows3.1/95 (Not NT). On the negative side: it is a translation from German and a rather poor one. If you can read German, go for the original <g>. Also, it is heavily "European", there isn't much about what happens in the US. The price is a bit on the high side, too (a typical store price, including taxes, is about $100, but that's nothing new for Wiley.) The tear-off card, for some reason must be mailed to England (like there isn't a Wiley office somewhere in the US.) Besides, I thought for $100 a disk with the smart card emulator program could have been included.