Taking advantage of its latest technologies as well as energy-efficient central processing units, Intel Corp. on Monday has unveiled a retail point-of-sale (POS) proof-of-concept system that could lower a store’s total cost of ownership while improving customer satisfaction.

Revealed at the National Retail Federation Convention (NRF) in New York, Intel’s proof-of-concept exhibits the latest in digital signage and point-of-sale technology in a kiosk form factor, and demonstrates how technology can enhance the retail shopping experience.

Intel’s POS demo is based on 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processor that is inside hundreds of millions of today’s laptops and PCs. Compared with legacy POS platforms, the processor in the demo can enable more than a 70% reduction in required power use while still providing as much as double the amount of raw processing performance as previous generations of processors. As such, energy savings from this POS system are passed on to retailers by way of lower energy bills.

The proof-of-concept platform features Intel vPro technology (Intel vPro) with Intel Active Management Technology and offers lower maintenance costs, improved power management and security options such as system diagnosis. Intel vPro technology allows administrators to manage systems remotely, making it possible to turn off all systems overnight to increase energy savings and reduce the need for technicians to go on-site for system maintenance, resulting in decreased carbon emissions and lower operational expenses for retailers.

“Intel-based technologies will ensure retailers are well-positioned to move through the current economy into a successful and profitable future, while giving their customers more information faster and easier than ever before. We hope the combination of improving a customer’s retail experience, while also arming sales associates with more accurate information and reducing operations costs, such as electricity bills and maintenance, is a compelling proposition for the world’s retailers to take advantage of what Intel technology innovation has to offer,” said Joe Jensen, general manager of Intel embedded computing division.

It remains to be seen whether manufacturers of point-of-sale systems will be interested in Intel’s reference design of a POS.

Tags: Intel, Core