{"id":287,"date":"2006-11-16T16:02:43","date_gmt":"2006-11-16T16:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/archives\/287"},"modified":"2013-08-26T18:13:17","modified_gmt":"2013-08-26T23:13:17","slug":"why-not-embedded-atms-running-xp-professional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/why-not-embedded-atms-running-xp-professional\/","title":{"rendered":"Why not Embedded? ATM’s Running XP Professional…"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Today while on my way back I stopped at the (Cairo Amman) bank to withdraw some money. As luck would have it, the ATM wasn\u2019t working \u2013 again. This time, I happened to be there when it suddenly BSOD\u2019d and began a reboot cycle. Obviously, to BSOD it needs to run Windows, and moments later, that was confirmed. But that\u2019s not the story here \u2013 believe it or not, most ATMs run Windows nowadays, and there\u2019s absoloutely nothing wrong with that.\n<\/p>\n

The problem is, they\u2019re all running Windows XP Professional. Of course if the only alternative was Windows XP Home Edition, we\u2019d understand; but there\u2019s a reason why Microsoft developed Windows XP Embedded. It\u2019s not just about performance, size, & reliability, but it\u2019s also about speed, adaptability, cost<\/strong>, and ease-of-use. Windows XP Embedded is several times cheaper to license and deploy across a wide range of computers (err, ATM machines) than Windows XP, especially Professional Edition. What\u2019s more, it doesn\u2019t require as much power, and doesn\u2019t have as much bloat.\n<\/p>\n

I had the (mis)fortune of seeing the PC\/ATM boot. They\u2019re using an IBM with Phoenix Bios (from the 60s) and 512 MB SDRAM. Forget about speed, just think about it in terms of cash. It must be more expensive to buy thousands of these machines new than it is to purchase a minimal-device capable of supporting the stripped-down XP EE \u2013 which is all you really need to run an ATM. You most certainly don\u2019t need Internet Explorer!\n<\/p>\n

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Even more importantly, Windows XP (Professional) isn\u2019t a real-time system. It can\u2019t be made<\/em> into an RTOS<\/abbr> either. On the other hand, Windows CE\/Embedded has full RTOS support (just need to re-compile it), and with ATMs, RTOS can really come in handy. RTOS means you don\u2019t get customer\u2019s credit-cards eaten up because the operating system decided to spend a cycle-too-many wasting time instead of returning results. It means that the next time there\u2019s a large que in front of the ATM, they won\u2019t have to wait as long. Most importantly, RTOS is absoloutely necessary to handle the constant influx of money. You need instantaneous<\/strong> information on what was deposited and what was withdrawn, or else you could be in for big trouble.\n<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a million reasons why an ATM should<\/del> must be RTOS, be it Linux or VxWorks or Windows CE, but even if you don\u2019t go with RTOS, Windows XP Professional most certainly isn\u2019t the answer. Especially if it\u2019s not even SP2.\n<\/p>\n

Handy Links:<\/p>\n