English

Noun

cardware ‎(uncountable)

1. (computing) Synonym of postcardware
   • 1994, Peter M. Ridge, Sound Blaster: The Official Book

     Two of the programs are "cardware" — the authors would be pleased to receive just a postcard.

   • 2005, James Moran, ‎Victoria Hull, Brilliant ECDL (page 29)

     Other forms of freeware/shareware are cardware/postcardware/emailware - instead of paying, you send the programmer a card or an email saying thanks.

2. (computing) The software and hardware supporting a smart card system.
   • 1997, Laurens van den Broek, ‎Annet J. Sikkel, Health Cards '97 (page 95)

     Detailed experience from other economic sectors as well as some partial data for the health sector allows us to calculate a factor the cardware costs have to be multiplied with to get total costs […]