Microsoft Corp’s chairman Bill Gates is looking forward to the day when banks’ automatic teller machines will be running a Microsoft operating system. Gates demonstrated how banks can authorize and process up to 1 billion transactions a day through NCR Corp’s recently launched personaS automated teller machines connected to a Microsoft-equipped client-server system, simulating a mythical global bank with 1.6 billion accounts. The system recorded 11,000 withdrawals and deposits per second over a 24-hour period. Gates’ cash withdrawal, including request, authorization and updating of his bank account, took less than half a second. The five personaS, which have full-motion on-screen video, were connected to 20, four-processor 200MHz Pentium Pro database servers from Compaq Computer Corp running Microsoft SQL Server and Transaction Server. The personaS themselves run Windows NT, and were connected to the servers via TCP/IP. The authorization process uses an ActiveX object built jointly by Microsoft and NCR. Gates, currently valued at some $32bn in terms of his Microsoft stock, did not appear disappointed to receive only NCR paper money as a result of the transaction. I still have enough money, I guess, he said.
