Crashes are as disastrous in the ATM world as they are on an interstate highway.

That's one reason that nearly all of the PC-based ATMs in the U.S. run on OS/2, an IBM operating system first introduced in December of 1987. While 1987 seems like the Stone Age in the fast-paced world of personal computing, ATM manufacturers and deployers have clung to OS/2 because of its proven stability. Some remained leery of Microsoft operating systems such as Windows NT because of reliability concerns.

Characterizing OS/2 as "rock solid stable," Bill Jackson, Triton's chief technical officer, said it also required little memory to run, a boon in the days when ATMs had limited processing power.

In the past few years, however, manufacturers introduced ATMs with Pentium-level processors, and a few large financial institutions began slowly migrating their ATM networks to NT, driven largely by their desire for a platform that was compatible with standard development tools and languages.

Yet Windows NT will never become an industry-wide standard like OS/2.

Moving forward

According to Microsoft's Web site, the NT Server 4.0 operating system is being retired because of what it calls a growing demand for Windows 2000. While product support for the five-year-old NT will continue for the foreseeable future, Microsoft will throw its considerable marketing clout behind its 2000 and new XP systems.

On its Web site, Microsoft touts both 2000 and XP as being more reliable, manageable and scalable than NT. ATM industry professionals seem to agree. Several manufacturers are using 2000 as their platform of choice, and NCR last month announced plans to offer XP to its customers.

"Stability gains" of 2000 have made it Mosaic Software's recommended platform, said Mike Bengtson, the company's vice president of self-service product strategy. Mosaic now offers NT and 2000-based versions of its flagship Postilion product. "Previous to Windows 2000, OS/2 Warp might have been the more stable platform," he said.

Creating a 2000 version of Postilion was a relatively smooth operation, Bengtson added. "The device drivers do operate the same under 2000 as under NT, and we didn't have to make any code level adjustments."

"(Windows 2000) is the first operating system Microsoft has gotten right," said Triton's Jackson. Triton is using 2000 in the new 9800, its first PC-based machine. Noting that NT 4.0 has required six major service patches, Jackson said, "Today it is stable, but it still does not have the support for many of the newest features of certain pieces of hardware."

Latest and greatest

He calls 2000 "almost bulletproof," noting that it isolates applications from each other and the system itself better than any previous Microsoft operating system. It also runs significantly faster than NT. While XP offers the same advantages as 2000 over NT, Jackson doesn't believe it contains any major improvements of interest to ATM deployers.

Tim Zajkowski, Diebold's director of system software, echoed Jackson's sentiments. "NT was chosen early on, but I think 2000 and XP will mark the real transition point," he said.

The original intent of NT was to provide a robust workstation platform, Zajkowski explained; multimedia support was secondary, and plug-and-play functionality was not yet available. With Windows 95 and 98, Microsoft introduced more multimedia support and added plug-and-play as it became a more mature standard.

Windows 2000 and XP combine NT's robust nature with the enhanced multimedia and plug-and-play functionality of Windows 98.

Zajkowksi said 2000 and XP also include additional evolutionary technology such as better multi-monitor support and Active Directory, which he said is valuable in an enterprise deployment.

While deployers may never have a need for the same kind of extensive multimedia support as home gamers, they are showing increased interest in audio and video capabilities at the ATM – both for revenue-generating activities such as advertising campaigns and to comply with the requirement for audio that is expected to be mandated by the federal government in accordance with new Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines.

Diebold first demonstrated its TCS (Terminal Control Software) Plus on Windows 2000 beta releases in late 1999 and began offering it as a released product earlier this year.

Speed to market

Zajkowski predicts that the acceptance curve for 2000 and XP will be shorter than it has been to date for NT.

"It took quite a while before the IS industry was comfortable with Windows NT. We're a little over one-and-a-half years and two service packs into the Windows 2000 product, so the comfort level has to be growing," he said. "For self-service terminals, I believe this greater comfort combined with the added functionality will help speed its adaptation."

Sharon Dickie, group marketing manager of NCR's Software and Services division, said that while many of NCR's customers have yet to migrate their networks to NT, some have already migrated to NT and are considering their next move.

"The migration within the self-service environment has been slower than that of the PC desktops within an organization, but the differences are obvious. Both require significant security; however, self-service has this and the consumer interaction to uphold," Dickie said. "We believe adoption will happen faster as other factors come into play that enable the introduction of the platform into the network, such as governmental requirements for ADA that will drive replacement."