Point of sale (POS) is the physical location at which goods or services are purchased and transaction data is captured through electronic cash registers or other electronic devices such as magnetic card readers, optical and bar code scanners or some combination of these.
Early electronic cash registers (ECRs) were the first POS devices with proprietary software and limited functions. In 1973, IBM announced that it had two POS devices: IBM 3650 and 3660 Store Systems, which were store controllers for 128 POS registers. This represented the first commercial use of several technologies: client/server technology, peer-to-peer communications, local area networking, simultaneous backup and remote initialization. The next year, these were installed in Pathmark and Dillard's stores in New Jersey.Both retailers and vendors have continually developed standards for computerized POS systems. These initiatives include object linking and embedding for POS (OPOS) and JavaPOS. OPOS was the first commonly used standard. It was developed by Microsoft Corp., NCR Corp., Seiko Epson Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd., and was first released in 1996. JavaPOS was developed by Sun Microsystems, IBM, and NCR Corp. in 1997 and was first released in 1999.Protocols for POS systems include EPSON Esc/POS, UTC Standard, UTC Enhanced, AEDEX, ICD 2002, and others. There are also many proprietary protocols.After 2000, POS software could run on any computer with an Internet connection.Although retailers are the predominant users of POS terminals, restaurant businesses and corporate offices and hotel businesses employ many innovative customized POS terminals and peripherals as well. Key requirements for modern POS software include ease of use, fast processing, remote supportability, reliability, low cost and rich functionality.
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