12-17-2019, 09:48 PM
(12-17-2019, 08:14 PM)bgb_ca Wrote:(12-17-2019, 07:49 PM)jeffster Wrote: I had noticed an error code and it did look like they're running some sort of Windows OS. I could be wrong. But one should never, ever run Windows in anything critical, it's too unreliable. Normally you'd use Unix or, Linux (Unix like) system. These systems are less prone to errors and tend to be more hardy.
It's actually Windows IoT (Formerly Windows Embedded) which is different beast than Windows 10. It is designed for lightweight applications such as POS terminals, ATMs, and Card Readers where the full version of Windows is not needed. It does not have a lot of stuff that home or enterprise Windows versions have because they are not needed or useful for these types of applications. There are lots of machines out there running it that you may not even realize are running it.
As for that message that pops up on the pedestals, even though it is showing, you can still tap your card and it still works (I've done it many times). For the misread ones, usually I just tap it a second time and it works. (I have the same problem sometimes on the tap to pay interac machines in stores).
Yes, many if not most embedded systems run windows, ATMs are the funny ones, many of which were running a variant of XP up until a few years ago--it's one of the main reason support for XP was extended the last few times. Shocking I know.