VeriFone
Encyclopedia
VeriFone is a company that makes point-of-sale equipment. It was founded and incorporated in Hawaii
in 1981, and named itself after its first product, the name standing for Verification telephone.
Hewlett-Packard
acquired VeriFone in a $1.18bn stock-swap deal in April 1997. Four years later VeriFone was sold to Gores Technology Group in May 2001. VeriFone is based in San Jose, California
and has offices in the United States, UK, Philippines, India and Singapore. It has R&D centers in the US, Ireland and India. The President and CEO is Douglas G. Bergeron
.
VeriFone has sold numerous point-of-sale credit card reading products, including the ZON Jr (1984), Tranz 330
(1987), Omni 460 (1991) and Omni 3200 (1999) which were the most successful transaction terminals of their times. The company's most popular current products include the Omni 3700 Family, featuring the Omni 3750 and Omni 3740. In 2004, VeriFone introduced its newest line of products, Vx Solutions (also called VerixV). These include the Vx510 and Vx570, which are countertop terminals offering dial-up or Ethernet
access, and the Vx610 and Vx670 which are portable, include batteries, and an integrated wireless communications module. The Vx610 is offered in GPRS, CDMA, and WiFi
wireless configurations, and is considered a 'countertop mobile' product. The Vx670 is a true portable or 'handover' version available with GPRS, WiFi, and as of November 2007, Bluetooth
-integrated communications modules.
The Vx670, in particular, is a deterrent against the theft of credit information because the customer is not required to relinquish possession of his or her credit card; instead transacting directly with the Vx670 in a 'pay at table' sense. The Vx510 is repackaged as Omni 3730, capitalizing the huge sales of the Omni 3700 series. A derivative of Omni3730 is the Omni 3750LE, which has reduced features, but lower price.
In 2005 VeriFone released its first full color EFTPOS terminal, the MX870. The MX870 is capable of full screen video and is used to build applications by VeriFone customers. The MX870 is the first in the MX800 series of Visual Payment Terminals. All of these terminals run Embedded Linux
and use FST FancyPants and the Opera browser for their GUI platform.
On November 1, 2006 VeriFone completed its acquisition of Israeli company Lipman, and added NURIT solutions to its growing portfolio.
In 2009, VeriFone partnered with Hypercom and Ingenico
to found the Secure POS Vendor Alliance, a non-profit organization
whose goal is to increase awareness of and improve payment industry security.
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
in 1981, and named itself after its first product, the name standing for Verification telephone.
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
acquired VeriFone in a $1.18bn stock-swap deal in April 1997. Four years later VeriFone was sold to Gores Technology Group in May 2001. VeriFone is based in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
and has offices in the United States, UK, Philippines, India and Singapore. It has R&D centers in the US, Ireland and India. The President and CEO is Douglas G. Bergeron
Douglas G. Bergeron
Douglas Bergeron is CEO of VeriFone, a software and telecommunications development company in the United States. He previously served in a variety of executive management positions at SunGard Data Systems Inc., including President of SunGard Futures Systems and Group CEO of SunGard Brokerage...
.
Products
VeriFone, Inc. is a well-known brand in electronic payment solutions. Its principal product lines have included point of sale, merchant-operated, consumer-facing and self-service payment systems for multiple industries, notably financial, retail, hospitality, petroleum, government and healthcare markets.VeriFone has sold numerous point-of-sale credit card reading products, including the ZON Jr (1984), Tranz 330
TRANZ 330
The TRANZ 330 is a popular point-of-sale device manufactured by VeriFone in 1985. The most common application for these units is bank and credit card processing, however, as a general purpose computer, they can perform other novel functions. Other applications include gift/benefit card...
(1987), Omni 460 (1991) and Omni 3200 (1999) which were the most successful transaction terminals of their times. The company's most popular current products include the Omni 3700 Family, featuring the Omni 3750 and Omni 3740. In 2004, VeriFone introduced its newest line of products, Vx Solutions (also called VerixV). These include the Vx510 and Vx570, which are countertop terminals offering dial-up or Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
access, and the Vx610 and Vx670 which are portable, include batteries, and an integrated wireless communications module. The Vx610 is offered in GPRS, CDMA, and WiFi
WIFI
WIFI is a radio station broadcasting a brokered format. Licensed to Florence, New Jersey, USA, the station is currently operated by Florence Broadcasting Partners, LLC.This station was previously owned by Real Life Broadcasting...
wireless configurations, and is considered a 'countertop mobile' product. The Vx670 is a true portable or 'handover' version available with GPRS, WiFi, and as of November 2007, Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
-integrated communications modules.
The Vx670, in particular, is a deterrent against the theft of credit information because the customer is not required to relinquish possession of his or her credit card; instead transacting directly with the Vx670 in a 'pay at table' sense. The Vx510 is repackaged as Omni 3730, capitalizing the huge sales of the Omni 3700 series. A derivative of Omni3730 is the Omni 3750LE, which has reduced features, but lower price.
In 2005 VeriFone released its first full color EFTPOS terminal, the MX870. The MX870 is capable of full screen video and is used to build applications by VeriFone customers. The MX870 is the first in the MX800 series of Visual Payment Terminals. All of these terminals run Embedded Linux
Embedded Linux
Embedded Linux is the use of Linux in embedded computer systems such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants, media players, set-top boxes, and other consumer electronics devices, networking equipment, machine control, industrial automation, navigation equipment and medical instruments...
and use FST FancyPants and the Opera browser for their GUI platform.
On November 1, 2006 VeriFone completed its acquisition of Israeli company Lipman, and added NURIT solutions to its growing portfolio.
In 2009, VeriFone partnered with Hypercom and Ingenico
Ingenico
Ingenico S.A. is a worldwide company, whose business is to provide the technology involved in secure electronic transactions. Its traditional business is based around the manufacture of point of sale payment terminals, but it now also includes complete payment solutions and related services.It...
to found the Secure POS Vendor Alliance, a non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
whose goal is to increase awareness of and improve payment industry security.
Programming languages
- The ZON and Tranz series are programmed in a proprietary alphabetic scripting language called TCL, or Terminal Control Language. This language has no relationship to the similarly named UNIX-related language tclTclTcl is a scripting language created by John Ousterhout. Originally "born out of frustration", according to the author, with programmers devising their own languages intended to be embedded into applications, Tcl gained acceptance on its own...
. These terminals used variants of the Z80 8-bit processor. - Older models of the Omni series were based on an operating system called TXO, or Transaction eXpress Options, and the programming language was TXO C. VeriFone had its own IDE for this platform. At machine level, the processors were still Z80 based micro-controllers.
- Newer models of the Omni series (numbers starting from 3300) were developed on Verix operating system (an adoption of Linux). The processor used inside is Motorola 68000. Its programming language is also C programming language. Usually MSVC++ IDE is used for program editing, but the compilation is done by a cross-compiler called SDS from WindRiver Systems.
- The newest VerixV terminals (with names beginning with Vx) are essentially remakes of the newer Omni series, but with ARMARM architectureARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
processors instead of Motorola. Verix V is spoken "Verix Vee", not "Verix five". MSVC++ is still used as IDE, but the cross-compiler is RealView Compilation Tool for ARM.