PC/SC (Personal Computer / Smart Card) is the interoperability specification standard set for integrating smart cards and smart card readers into the mainstream computing environment. Microsoft has implemented PC/SC in Microsoft Windows 10/8/7/200x/XP and makes it available under Microsoft Windows NT/9x. A free implementation of PC/SC, PC/SC Lite, is available for Linux and other Unixes; a forked version comes bundled with Mac OS X.
The advantage of PC/SC is that applications do not have to acknowledge the details corresponding to the smart card reader when communicating with the smart card. This application can function with any reader that complies with the PC/SC standard.
For more information on PCSC and the latest specification click here: https://www.pcscworkgroup.com/