Abstract: A system and method simulates a universal serial bus (USB) smart card device connected to a USB host device for development and debugging and includes a computer simulator and USB host device with host controller operatively connected along a communications link with the computer simulator for transmitting or receiving data packets to or from the computer simulator. A microcontroller is located between the computer simulator and USB host device and translates the data packets into a USB protocol to be used by the USB host device and defined by the computer simulator.