This International Standard provides the specifications for the standard Open Terminal Architecture (OTA) kernel in several layers:
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definition of the virtual machine (VM);
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description of the services provided by the VM to terminal programmers;
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specification of a set of tokens representing the native machine language of the VM;
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specification of the format in which token modules are delivered to an OTA kernel for processing.
OTA defines a standard software kernel whose functions and programming interface are common across all terminal types. This kernel is based on a standard “virtual machine,?? which is implemented on each CPU type and which provides drivers for the terminal\'s I/O and all low-level CPU-specific logical and arithmetic functions. High-level libraries, terminal programs and payment applications may be developed using these standard kernel functions.