Microprocessor design for inteligent point-of-sale terminals

A point-of-sale (POS) terminal, besides serving as an ordinary isolated cash register, is also part of a retail data collection system. The system emphasis is on data collection, although minimal computational capability is also required. The rate of data input to this system is largely limited by the speed of the operator. These aspects influence terminal design. This article describes the capabilities of an existing terminal processor and compares them to a commercially available microprocessor chip.