Process, system and computer readable medium for consolidation of communication among peripheral devices in a retail store environment.

摘要

A process, system and computer readable medium for a point-of-sale computer system including a point-of-sale checkout station having a cash register (14) and a peripheral device (22), a store communication bus (12) connected to the cash register (14), a store controller (10) connected to the store communication bus (12), for controlling and supplying data to the cash register (14), and a supplemental processor (16) for performing tasks supplemental to tasks performed by the store controller. The system further includes port concentrators (30) associated with each point-of-sale checkout station and having multiple input/output ports, one input/output port coupled to the peripheral device (22), and a port concentrator communication network (36) coupled to the supplemental processor (16) and to the port concentrators (30). The supplemental processor (16) communicates with the peripheral device (22) through the port concentrator communication network (36) and a respective port concentrator (30). Installation or expansion of the system to include additional peripheral devices (22) at each point-of-sale checkout station is greatly simplified by the presence of the port concentrators (30) and the port concentrator communication network (36).