Developing software for an RFID reader with open-source Linux support: Which direction to go, hardware-/system-wise?

Question

I'll be working on a project that will work with RFID readers.

The target platform for our software is Debian stable (currently 5.0.6).

I have investigated the following options so far:

• Parallax RFID card reader (USB) • Here I'm not quite sure about the Linux support. The manual PDF from that link ("useful links") references this vendor page which says that all devices except FT2232H and FT4232H are supported by stock kernels > 2.6.9. The aforementioned PDF does not seem to say which exact chip is being used. Stock kernel support would give me a lot more peace of mind than some vendor link that's here today, and gone (or incompatible with new kernels) tomorrow.
• Brooks RFID Reader (USB) HF20 • This one uses the well-supported CP210X USB<->Serial chip, but it's kinda pricey. What I've seen of its protocol so far is very nice, though.
• The HID OMNIKEY 5321 USB • This one seems nice, too, and very affordable, but I'm not sure what the quality of its Linux support through pcscd is. Being able to use affordable, but well-standardized mifare transponders would be a plus, I guess.

Those three would require using them with an embedded PC to drive them, so I also looked at the following ("and now for something completely different" ;)) solution:

• The FAT800AR / FAT810R/-FL/-W • Basically little telnet-like terminals that use a central host-server, which seems to require fewer points-of-failure, but OTOH cannot even cache data for a while if the network connection is down.

I'd be extremely grateful for feedback on those (or similar) RFID solutions and also about the mentioned vendors (reliability, fair dealing…).

I'd be especially happy if you have real-world experience with such solutions, anything is of interest: TCO benefits/drawbacks of going a specific route, how easy the over-the-wire protocols are to program and how the available wrapper libraries (if any) worked out for you, hardware (and hardware combinations) that failed especially often/spectacularly, … anything, really.

I'd also appreciate if you could point me to tests in reputable publications. I always seem to end up on horrible industry websites…

Answer 1

FT2232H and FT4232H are supported by recent mainline kernel according to the driver source

And I think they are dual and quad serial port chip, so it they are propably not used on a part with a single serial port.