CEN/XFS or XFS (''extensions for financial services'') provides a client-server architecture for financial applications on the

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

platform, especially peripheral devices such as

EFTPOS Electronic funds transfer at point of sale (EFTPOS; ) is an electronic payment system involving electronic funds transfers based on the use of payment cards, such as debit or credit cards, at payment terminals located at points of sale. EFTPOS ...

terminals and ATMs which are unique to the financial industry. It is an international standard promoted by the

European Committee for Standardization The European Committee for Standardization (CEN, french: Comité Européen de Normalisation) is a public standards organization whose mission is to foster the economy of the European Single Market and the wider European continent in global t ...

(known by the acronym CEN, hence CEN/XFS). The standard is based on the

WOSA WOSA (101.1 FM) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Grove City, Ohio, featuring a classical music format known as "Classical 101fm". Owned by the Ohio State University, the station serves Columbus, Ohio and much of the ...

Extensions for Financial Services or WOSA/XFS developed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

. With the move to a more standardized software base, financial institutions have been increasingly interested in the ability to pick and choose the application programs that drive their equipment. XFS provides a common API for accessing and manipulating various financial services devices regardless of the manufacturer.

History

Chronology: * 1991 - Microsoft forms "Banking Solutions Vendor Council" * 1995 - WOSA/XFS 1.11 released * 1997 - WOSA/XFS 2.0 released - additional support for 24 hours-a-day unattended operation * 1998 - adopted by European Committee for Standardization as an international standard. * 2000 - XFS 3.0 released by CEN * 2008 - XFS 3.10 released by CEN * 2011 - XFS 3.20 released by CEN * 2015 - XFS 3.30 released by CEN * 2020 - XFS 3.40 released by CEN WOSA/XFS changed name to simply XFS when the standard was adopted by the international CEN/ISSS standards body. However, it is most commonly called CEN/XFS by the industry participants.

XFS middleware

While the perceived benefit of XFS is similar to Java's "

write once, run anywhere Write once, run anywhere (WORA), or sometimes Write once, run everywhere (WORE), was a 1995 slogan created by Sun Microsystems to illustrate the cross-platform benefits of the Java language. Ideally, this meant that a Java program could be develo ...

" mantra, often different hardware vendors have different interpretations of the XFS standard. The result of these differences in interpretation means that applications typically use a

middleware Middleware is a type of computer software that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue". Middleware makes it easier for software developers to implement ...

to even out the differences between various platforms implementation of XFS. Notable XFS middleware platforms include:
F1 Solutions
- F1 TPS (multi-vendor ATM & POS solution)
Nexus Software LLC
- Nexus Evolution * Nautilus Hyosung - Nextware * Hitachi-Omron Terminal Solutions

ATOM Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas, a ...

* Diebold Agilis Power * NCR
NCR XFS
* KAL
KAL Kalignite

Auriga - The Banking E-volution
WWS Omnichannel Platform
Cashware
- XFS service providers
Phoenix InteractiveVISTAatm
Acquired by Diedold *

Wincor Nixdorf Wincor Nixdorf was a German corporation that provided retail and retail banking hardware, software, and services. Wincor Nixdorf was engaged primarily in the sale, manufacture, installation and service of self-service transaction systems (such a ...

ProBase (ProBase C as WOSA/XFS platform - ProBase J as J/XFS platform)
SBS SoftwareKIXXtension
* Dynasty Technology Group - (JSI) Jam Service Interface * HST Systems & Technologies - HAL Interface
FreeXFS
open source XFS platform * GRG bankingbr>eCAT
(multi-vendor ATM terminal solution) * TI
xfs.js implementation
open source for node.js community) * TEB Orion

XFS test tools

XFS test tools allow testing of XFS applications and middleware on simulated hardware. Some tools include sophisticated automatic regression testing capabilities. Providers of XFS test tools include: * Abbrevia Simplicit

* Paragon VirtualAT
Product PageVirtualATM Intro Video
* Cashware (Aurigae Group) XFS and J/XFS ATM Simulator
ATMirage
* FIS ATM Testlab

(was Clear2Pay, formally Level Four Software and Lexcel TestSystem ATM) * KAL ATM Software, KALbr>KAL Kalignite
Test Utilities * Dynasty Technology Group - JSI Simulators * HST Systems & Technologies (Brazil) * Takkto Technologies (Mexico)
LUTZWOLF JDST
- Testtool for J/XFS compatibility * Afferent Software RapidFire ATM XF

* Serquo Software XFS and J/XFS ATM Simulato

J/XFS

J/XFS is an alternative API to CEN/XFS (which is

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for se ...

specific) and also to Xpeak (which is Operating System independent, based on XML messages). J/XFS is written in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

with the objective to provide a

platform Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...

agnostic client-server architecture for financial applications, especially

peripheral device A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer. The term ''peripheral device'' refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by the ...

s used in the financial industry such as

terminals and ATMs. With the move to a more standardized software base, financial institutions have been increasingly interested in the ability to pick and choose the application programs that drive their equipment. J/XFS provides a common

Object Oriented Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of "objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form o ...

API between a pure Java application and a wide range of financial devices, providing a layer of separation between application and device logic that can be implemented using a native J/XFS API or wrapping an existing implementation in

JavaPOS JavaPOS (short for Java for Point of Sale Devices), is a standard for interfacing point of sale (POS) software, written in Java, with the specialized hardware peripherals typically used to create a point-of-sale system. The advantages are reduced PO ...

or CEN/XFS. J/XFS was developed by the companies

De La Rue De La Rue plc (, ) is a British company headquartered in Basingstoke, England, that designs and produces banknotes, secure polymer substrate and banknote security features (including security holograms, security threads and security printe ...

, IBM, NCR,

and

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, t ...

and is now hosted, monitored and maintained by the

, CEN.

External links

CEN/XFS Home Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cen Xfs Windows communication and services Device drivers Embedded systems Application programming interfaces Microsoft application programming interfaces Banking technology

History

XFS middleware

XFS test tools

J/XFS

See also

External links