FORMAT OPTIONS FOR CUSTOMERS

AWID offers four types of code options to our customers(see below). These choices apply to all of our "credentials".

International-standard 26-bit Wiegand format

90% of AWID's encoded credentials contain the standard 26-bit format. This format is identical to the 26-bit format that other card manufacturers worldwide offer, and that systems manufacturers program into their access control systems. Therefore our 26-bit format is compatible with, and interchangeable with, the 26-bit format of all sources of credentials, readers and systems for access control. (Please see “Compatibility”, below.)

The 26-bit Wiegand standard format contains 16.7 million individual codes, if all available ID numbers (sometimes called PINs – personal identification numbers), and all available site codes (otherwise called facility codes or building codes or company codes), are used.
All manufacturers call this format an “open code” because it is available freely to all customers. AWID applies no restrictions on what site codes or ID numbers are ordered by its customers for this format. If a customer asks AWID to select the site code and/or ID numbers for a particular order, we select a combination that has not been used in that customer's geographical region. But if the customer specifies particular codes, that is what we produce for that customer.

AWID's 37-bit open code format

AWID offers an alternative format that is likewise an open code, but it contains more than 2,000 times as many individual codes. Therefore there is much greater chance for AWID to supply codes that have not been used by any other customer. This 37-bit format must be programmed into the host system by the installer in the first use of this format on that system.

Proprietary format

Like other manufacturers of encoded credentials for access control, AWID offers code formats that are reserved for a particular customer. We ask the customer to lay out the format as much as possible (a so-called "bit map"), showing the total number of bits in the format ranging from 26 to 58 bits, the number and locations of data fields (such as the site code and ID numbers, and others if needed), the size of the data fields, the number and type and locations of error-checking bits (such as "parity" bits that the typical Wiegand format uses), etc. If this bit map is different from all other customers’ proprietary formats, we can reserve this format for this customer. We will not sell credentials with this format to any other customer.

AWID's "High-Security Format"

This is a reserved-site-code format. It contains 34 bits total, data fields for site code and for ID numbers, and 2 parity bits for error-checking. AWID assigns the site code to our customer. Then the customer may control the 16.7 million ID numbers for that assigned site code any way that the customer wishes. The customer gives us the desired ID numbers in an order, and we supply them without question -- using that customer's assigned site code.
Compatibility: For practical reasons, the encoded credentials and the readers must come from the same manufacturer. AWID's readers will read only AWID's credentials. This is generally true throughout the access control industry. Cards from all manufacturers may use the identical 26-bit Wiegand data format; and all readers may have the identical Wiegand-protocol electrical interface. But the credentials and readers of a particular manufacturer will communicate with each other and in most cases not with products from other manufacturers.