In this blog, we will discuss some of the successful ways you can enhance EPoS product development with a handy summary of latest in-built features.
Electronic Point of Sale (EPoS) equipment are a common sight today used everywhere from banking, hospitality and retail segments. They comprise various consumer products including card payment terminals, electronic cash registers and vending machines. Nowadays, there is a growing demand for mobile POS systems, and huge demand for product development.
The key elements of a POS terminal include a card reader (Magnetic or Smart card), a network which sends the data securely and a bank server, which authenticates, approves and executes the transaction. There are other EPoS components that play an important role.
- Processor
- Security technology
- Payment card interface
- Touch screen interface
- Network interface
- Power Management
Existing product development challenges
The current challenges faced by portable EPOS product manufacturers include:
- Reducing the development cost of the EPOS device
- Providing best security features
- Lowering battery consumption for handheld device
- Making the device portable with maximum features enablement
- Maximizing connectivity options
Nowadays, consumers want the best performance in their EPoS applications including high security and easy user interface.The product manufacturers struggle to reduce the cost of development as there are lots of technologies involved here. The device should be able to support multiple OS such as Linux, Android, Windows etc.
The inherent disadvantages of developing new EPoS applications include huge time and investment. Moreover, the device should have best security features right from SoC to applications to tamper-proof enclosures. The device should pass certain security standard verifications like PCI 4.0(Payment card Industry) which is a huge challenge in order to get the device certified. Also, the device should be handheld, portable and consume less battery.
Solution
eInfochips, along with TI, provides great technological expertise to enhance EPoS development based on AM43xx platform series with an inherent focus on secure architecture. We also provide EPOS SDK for faster development so that it can reduce the time to market for product development. Since, it is based on Linux, we are able to achieve faster and more secure application development as well. We have come with the blueprint of an Android based EPOS SDK is which and will be offered later in 2017. The SoC is also pre-certified with PCI PTS 4.0 standard.
Below is the block diagram of hardware components of an EPoS terminal.
In AM43x devices, the security architecture extends the TrustZone implementation. This is achieved with specific hardware mechanism and secure ROM code. This ensures that only trusted codes can access secure resources. Once the device has booted securely, the secure environment continues to exist in parallel with the public environment.
eInfochips EPOS SDK provides support for below features:
- Secure boot
- Linux Kernel and peripheral device drivers
- Dual smart card Readers
- Magnetic card Reader
- Touchscreen Interface
- Printer driver
- Keypad for secure pin entry
- SoC compliance with PCI 4.0 standards
- Tamper proof
- Example applications
eInfochips provides complete EPOS product design and development services for the retail sector comprising Hardware design, Firmware BSP, Application development, qualification and compliance with PTS PCI4.0 standards. We have a number of offerings in enhancing the product value of retail segment such as Bluetooth Low Energy-based device monitoring systems, and event-based video analytics.
