card-master

Smartcards with electrical connectors are in general all compliant with the basis standard ISO7816 - part 1-2-3-4.

ISO standards are not public, but you can have a good view on it here:

http://www.cardwerk.com/smartcards/smartcard_standard_ISO7816.aspx

The principle is to communicate with the card over a serial link, sending APDU commands,

and receiving replies with always SW codes and sometimes data.