Significant factors to consider of hardware design of EPOS Systems terminals

Technology has altered the way we carry out monetary transactions. Digital Money is the new money. Clients progressively favor doing their transactions online over physical payments. This definitely saves effort and time for both sellers as well as clients as one could directly deduct the money that the clients or customers have shopped from their credit/debit cards as opposed to paying with currency notes of various denominations. This is where the Electronic point of sale or EPOS Systems has come to be vital given that it’s one of the most used devices worldwide in order to help facilitate as well as validate card-based payments.

The EPOS Systems market was approximated to be worth $36.86 Billion in the year 2013 and was anticipated to expand at 11.6% CAGR from 2014 to 2016 according to marketing research reports. The EPOS market is currently categorized into 2 product classifications, fixed terminals, and mobile terminals. Fixed EPOS terminals presently command 80% of the market, however, in the near future, the fad will certainly draw away in the direction of mobile EPOS terminals as they offer a lot more versatility as well as simplicity of usage compared with fixed terminals. Leading market verticals for EPOS consist of stores, hotels, dining establishments as well as resorts, Healthcare stores, education and learning as well as government organizations and a lot more.

Hardware is one of the essential elements of EPOS Systems’ product design. In this blog post, we have actually attempted to include some significant factors to consider in the hardware design of EPOS terminals.

Give Right Preference to the Processor

There are several suppliers in the market today pitching their processors for EPOS systems design. Selecting the right option is an essential task. Graphics accelerators, ARM core (Cortex-A8 ideally), power efficiency, choices for mobile connection, and cordless communication protocol assistance are a few of the fundamental needs for a full-fledged EPOS system. The price of the chipset is another major significant apprehension that ought to be thought about in order to maintain BOM expenses in control.

Security Conformity Range

Security is a significant issue for monetary transactions. EPOS systems access and transmit crucial information of monetary data. Hardware encryption certainly gives a side over software-based security strategies as well as it is obligatory for all EPOS systems to meet PCI or EMV security criteria. AES, RSA, PKA, and 3DES are some significant security methods used today which are readily available on the hardware itself.

Payment Card Interface

EPOS systems read/write data from magnetic tape strips of smart/debit/credit cards. The hardware has to support various magnetic reading standards noticeable in the market. NFC (Near Field Communication) based cards are introducing a new fad out there and the capability of hardware to support them is vital for a much longer product life cycle in the coming future. The system hardware is likewise anticipated to support RF, RFID cards.

Touch Screen Assistance

Touchscreen assistance assists in fast as well as very easy monitoring of EPOS transitions. There are chips in the market with on-chip assistance for touchscreen display screens instead of including a different controller chip. It does add to maintain BOM in control.

Network Interface Assistance

Today EPOS systems support complete duplex cordless communication protocols consisting of 802.11 a/b/g/n, 2G/3G/LTE connection choices. Hardware ought to have assistance for these network interfaces to be effective in the market. If it is being supported by the hardware, Bluetooth v2.1+ and Low Power Bluetooth could additionally include value.

Power Management

Managing power is a vital element for the success of the EPOS system. The hardware should be power-efficient, with power dissipation to be as low as feasible.

Hardware design is a crucial element of any product design. EPOS being a gadget of monetary significance should integrate security, performance, as well as simplicity of usage in its product importance, should integrate security, performance, and convenience of usage in its product design cohesively for far better success.