When selecting a card reader, or before starting a Level 3 EMV certification, it’s important to know what kind of EMV terminal you will be supporting. The EMV Specs define fifteen different terminal types, depending on whether the payment environment is attended (such as in traditional retail) or unattended (e.g., a self-service kiosk), and whether the terminal goes online or stays offline, plus other factors. The terminal types defined by EMV are shown in the table below, which is taken from Annex A of EMV Book 4:
ID TECH offers a wide variety of EMV-ready card readers, but not all of them fit into all of the categories defined above. ID TECH’s current offerings are certified in 5 categories (which we often refer to as 1C, 2C, 3C, 4C, and 5C). The mapping of ID TECH categories to EMV-defined terminal types is shown in greater detail below.
| Terminal Capabilities |
1C |
2C |
3C |
4C |
5C |
Major/ Minor |
| Card Data Input Capability | ||||||
| Terminal Type |
22 |
21 |
25 |
25 |
21 |
|
| Manual Key Entry |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Minor |
| Magnetic Stripe |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Minor |
| IC with Contacts |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
N/A |
| CVM Capability | ||||||
| Plaintext PIN |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
Major |
| Online Enciphered PIN |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
Major |
| Signature (Paper) |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
Major |
| Offline Enciphered PIN |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
Major |
| No CVM |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Major |
CVM stands for Cardholder Verification Method. “No CVM” means the reader supports EMV-defined “No CVM” scenarios, but usually the same reader does, in fact, also support other CVM scenarios, such as chip-and-signature, or chip-and-PIN.
Many ID TECH readers are 3-in-1 readers, able to handle magstripe, contact EMV, and contactless EMV. Readers that are meant to be used in unattended scenarios (self-service kiosks, for example) have Configurations 3C or 4C. (The difference being, 3C can accommodate Chip and PIN, whereas 4C does not allow PIN.) Some ID TECH products, such as the VP8800, are designed to handle “manual key entry” (in addition to magstripe and ICC), which means Card Not Present (Mail-Order/Phone-Order) transactions; these readers utilize what we call Configuration 1C.
The above table is actually a shortened version of a much larger table. The full table can be viewed here.
