OT - IBM 46xx cash registers - was - Re: [TriLUG] New list member here

[Jeremy Portzer]

On Mon, 2004-03-22 at 15:08, Mark Wilson wrote:
> Hi, 
> I hope I haven't broken any protocol by posting as
> soon as I joined, but I wanted to ask if anyone else
> has noticed this: 
> Since you all are Triangle-based, I figure you're
> probably familiar with the Harris Teeter grocery store
> chain.  I myself live in Fayetteville, but when I was
> at the Teeter this weekend, I was nosily looking at
> the cashier's screen, and the borders around the
> window sure as he** looked like fvwm!   Anyone know
> anything about the Teeter using Linux (or some other
> Unix)?

Hello,

The Point-of-Sale-Terminals (POSTs) in Harris Teeter run an IBM
real-time operating system known as FlexOS, or sometimes just the "4680"
or "4690" operating system, named after the model of the terminals.  The
basic command prompt actually resembles DR [Digital Research] DOS;
Flex/OS was originally a DR product.  However, the IBM 4680 Supermarket
applications add a number of enhancements that make it a lot different
from a normal DOS clone.  The cash registers themselves are Pentium
class Intel boxes[1] with no hard drives; they boot diskless on an
Ethernet network from a controller cluster and have a proprietary IBM 
peripheral interface for all of the periperals (scanners, scale,
keyboard, etc).  The controller cluster normally consists of two Pentium
or higher class servers.  This basic IBM product has been around since
the late 1980s and used to run on Token Ring networks; H.T. replaced
theirs with Ethernet models recently.  Other area grocery store chains
using the same basic system are:  Food Lion, Lowe's Foods, Kroger, and
Winn-Dixie[2].   

I don't know much about the graphics code that displays the information
on the screen.   The LCD flatpanels connect to the standard VGA output
of the terminals (not to any of the proprietary interfaces).  I agree
that the display looks like fvwm, but the underlying FlexOS operating
system is not a Unix-based OS.  It could be that it was convenient
enough for IBM to port the code from fvwm and X to FlexOS; however I
don't see any evidence on the Web that these programs run natively on
FlexOS.  It may very well be that the programmer who created the
interface simply copied a fvwm-style graphics while designing the
screen.  While it kind of looks like a window, in practice there are
never any other windows, no minimizing or maximizing, etc... so it's
really just a border, not a real "window" or GUI.

Btw:  the flat-panel LCDs are intended to be a readout for you, the
customer, so it's not "nosy" at all to be looking at them.  The cashier
has their own smaller display on the keyboard and shouldn't need to look
at the large one.

Hope this helps!

Jeremy Portzer
Accounting Office / Customer Service / Cashier / whatever
Harris Teeter #21, Raleigh

[1] POST historians will note that for a long time, the 4680 terminals
and controllers were IBM PS/2 computers; IBM continued to make
replacement PS/2 parts for a long time after they left the consumer
market, simply to supply the retail industry.  I'm aware that some older
Food Lion locations still have PS/2 hardware.

[2] The "loyalty card" phenomenon that began hitting grocery stores in
the late 90s was mainly a result of IBM's introduction of the loyalty
card features into their 4680 Supermarket Application.  Also, stores
have a great deal of ability to customize various aspects of the system,
which is why it may not be immediately evident that these stores all use
the same system.

-- 
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| Jeremy Portzer        jeremyp at pobox.com      trilug.org/~jeremy     |
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