When you want computers to talk to one another, they need a common language. That’s why there are lots of communication standards in the computing world — so that different devices can share information, rather than operate in isolation.

ATMs are no different. ATMs need to be able to communicate with the transaction-processing computers that actually verify funds and transfer them between bank accounts. The processing computers, in turn, need to be able to send information back to the ATM, either telling it to dispense the requested cash, or to display an explanation of why it can’t.

One of the most widespread communication standards for ATMs was developed by ATM maker Triton in the early 1990s, when the non-bank ATM industry was just getting started. Triton made it an “open” standard — meaning anyone could use it, for free. Smart move: It became so widely used that while competitors have developed their own communication standards, most machines have a “Triton mode” option in order to be compatible with processing networks that rely on the Triton standard.

But the Triton standard was developed when the Internet was an infant and computer technology barely envisioned some of the services and capabilities we take for granted now. So rather than continue tweaking the old standard, Triton has developed a new one, called Triton Dynamic Language (TDL), that supports new features and more flexible control of installed ATMs.

“TDL is a radical departure from Triton Standard; it is going to revolutionize the way off-premise ATMs operate,” said Bob Douglas, Triton Director of Engineering.

“With customers’ needs changing and the demands for more transaction types increasing, TDL will allow off-premise ATMs to better meet the needs of their customers,” continues Douglas.” Some of the possibilities with TDL include the ability to define screen, receipt and transaction flow based on a specific customer’s card and transaction information; to be able to configure changes to the ATM remotely through the host; and to create custom applications for the ATM without extensive development.”

It’s a radical departure in more ways than one. While Triton will continue to offer the old standard for free, it plans to license the new standard — meaning competing manufacturers will have to pay royalties to include the standard in their machines.

James Phillips, the director of North American sales for ATMGurus, a Triton company, says Triton’s decision to require a license for the standard falls in line with market changes and allows ATM manufacturers to purchase a license for the new standard, giving them access to future functionality that the current standard will not incorporate. The current standard will continue to exist as it is, but a licnese agreement will be required for the new standard.

“As the market has changed, Triton has decided to change how it allows others to use that protocol,” Phillips said. “Now, we are licensing the protocol to the competition.”

Now through the end of the year, Triton is notifying all ATM deployers who currently use the standard of the upcoming licensing change. Licenses for the protocol will be issued on a per-terminal basis.

“If you don’t want to upgrade, you don’t have to,” Phillips said. “You can continue to use the current standard as long as you want. But to take advantage of future features that are built into the new standard, you will have to have a license.”

In essence, Triton is trying to become the Microsoft of the ATM world — controlling the key software on all machines, rather than using its software merely to sell its own machines. It will be interesting to see how manufacturers respond. On the one hand, licensing a common standard may well be cheaper than developing and maintaining their own standards, and having a single common standard will make things more efficient on a network level. On the other hand, it means turning over a key part of your machine to a competitor, and relying on that competitor to keep the standard updated and relevant into the future. Never mind that Triton might be tempted to hike fees substantically if it’s successful in establishing its standard as the ATM equivalent of Windows.

Triton plans to roll out the new standard by January 1. It will probably take a year or more to fully gauge the success of its new strategy. In the meantime, other manufacturers have a lot to think about.

Thanks to Europe’s more integrated banking markets, new communications standards, once established, tend to enjoy widespread adoption more quickly than in the United States. It’s true for cellphones, and it’s true for bank cards as well.

When the first ATM was introduced back in 1969, the cards it accepted used magnetic stripes to store customer account information. 40 years later, they still do.

But that’s changing. A new standard called EMV replaces the magnetic stripe with a computer chip, which is both more secure and more powerful. All new ATMs are expected to be EMV-compliant, and older ATMs can be retrofitted to accept the new standard.

Here in the United States, widespread EMV adoption is still a couple of years away. But in Europe it has already become the norm.

And that causes problems for U.S. visitors.

As the rest of the world wraps its migration to EMV/chip-and-PIN technology, Americans traveling overseas are running into mag-stripe disadvantages.

This week, travel reporter Michelle Higgins of The New York Times writes that U.S. cardholders traveling abroad are getting turned away by some merchants, since mag-stripe readers are quickly becoming things of the past in every corner of the globe except the United States.

Though EMVCo., which oversees and spearheaded the EMV shift, has said from the beginning that all chip cards and readers would continue to also read mag-stripes, many merchants are reluctant to accept mag-stripes, since they can be held liable if card information is skimmed or compromised. And because magnetic stripes are relatively easy to copy compared with chip-and-PIN technology, accepting mag-stripe transactions potentially opens the door for fraud.

You can read more in the New York Times article, though it requires registration to access.

It’s a problem that’s annoying in the short term, but will disappear in the long term as the U.S. fully adopts EMV. Still, it’s yet another reason to hasten that adoption.