Hong Kong, 15 November 1999, Meeting the highly competitive merchant acquiring and retail market needs, SPECTRA Technologies, Greater China leader in electronic transaction technology development, today introduced S9010 multi-purpose integrated cordless POS terminal which handles all credit card, debit card and multiple e-purses. Its 1 megabyte memory facilitates software driven customised and propriety smart card programs; its multi-SAM slots provide superior security protection resulting in competitiveness for banks and financial institutes as well as thousands of their retail customers.

With the rapid spread of smart cards, smart card based applications emerge and change people's buying habit and trading practice. In order to attract new customers and keep existing loyal, banks and retailers issue their own e-purses or customer programs. "Security" and program "Confluence" hence become the courses of card issuers and retail merchants' dilemma.

"S9010 multi-purpose POS terminal is the key to solve the aforementioned problem. It also well-equips card issuers for complicated smart card applications," said Timonthy Wong, Technical Director of SPECTRA Technologies. "S9010 entitles highly secured environments in protecting different banks and card issuers' individual customer bases and information in one hand plus allowing multiple smart card programs to retailers on the other through one single POS terminal system."

Wong further explained: "S9010 cordless transaction terminal is built on the success of the acclaimed S9000i which is well tested and accepted by the market. Today, over 100,000 units of S9000i have been sold in Asia with majority installed in Greater China for various industries. We learnt that only forefront technologies place our customers ahead of the competition in their own industries."

S9010 multi-purpose integrated cordless POS terminal is aesthetically designed. It consists of 2 individual units flexibly linked via infrared for peerless electronic transactions:

• Silver casing cordless handset which is an integrated encrypted condensed pin-pad with a 3-track magnetic card reader, chip card reader, a large graphic LCD display, newly deployed backlit, multiple temper auto-detectors, 4 SAM slot and 1 megabyte memory.
• Sophisticated Base unit with telephone, modem and printer. Compact in size, it utilises one single compact power supply; space saving and plug-and-play; fast bi-directional printer prints multiple copies in Chinese and English at 4.2 lines/sec, reducing customer waiting time. With RS232 compliance ECR (electronic cash register) interface, it facilitates integrated ECR solutions for all round service efficiency as duplicate entries of sales transaction is eliminated.

"Smart card technologies and applications stride into the future. Some international card issuers already launched their plans of replacing magnetic stripe with smart card. Powerful POS terminal with multiple SAM slots is the strategic tool to the success of banking, finance and retail industries," Wong finally added.

Flexibile and easy upgrade by simply replacing the handset

Upgrade of existing S9000i family for standard applications is made so flexible, easy and cost effective that customers only need to replace their existing handset with the S9010 handset. No re-programming for the base unit nor retraining is required at all. It is the most convenient and simplest way to upgrade in this new age of electronic transactions.

Remarkable features & functions of S9010 -

4 Security Access Module (SAM) slots

• highly secured environments for electronic purses like Mondex, VISA Cash and all smart card applications

Software & hardware security modules

• flexible and enhanced devices lead to versatile security protection

1 megabit memory for powerful software modules, CG (Character Generator) and flash memory

• 4 times as much memory allows programming, data storage, and easy application design

Large LCD display

• with 128 x 64 dots high contrast graphic display which allows displays in Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean and multi-language as well as on interactive operation menu

Smart card + magnetic card reader

• handles all international credit card, debit card, e-purses and proprietary programs

Build-in modem

• real-time online connection with bank host for electronic transaction.
• supports all international communications standards for electronic transactions

About S9000i

Today, over 100,000 pieces of S9000i family of integrated cordless POS terminal have been installed.

In Hong Kong, being the 1st vendor achieving ISO 8583 certification on EPS compliance, over 90% of banks and their merchants choose SPECTRA Technologies' POS terminals. The company owns over 50% POS terminal marketshare in the city.

In China, the company becomes the certified POS suppliers for 3 out of the 4 major banks namely Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank and China Industrial & Commercial Bank. The company owns the country's biggest installation site of POS terminal in Guangdong province - over 4,000 units of S9000i family POS terminal have been installed since end 1995.

In Taiwan, SPECTRA Technologies implemented Taiwan's first EMV 2.0 compliance credit card loyalty program for Toys R Us in 1996. The company also implemented the province's 1st supermarket and 1st chain restaurant loyalty programs

In Asia, S9000i attained following recognition:

Nov 1996 - Hong Kong Awards for Industry - Consumer Product Design

Jan 1998 - Graded in the "1998 EFT POS Terminalisation in Asia Report for the Payment Systems Industry" published by The Asian Banker Journal as The Best in terms of the following out of the 6 categories regarding product and price:

• Product Ergonomics
• Technically Advanced
• Innovation and
• Most Value Added