4690 Operating System (sometimes shortened to 4690 OS or 4690) is a specially designed

point of sale The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice f ...

(POS) operating system, originally sold by IBM. In 2012, IBM sold its retail business, including this product, to Toshiba, which assumed support. 4690 is widely used by IBM and Toshiba retail customers to run retail systems which run their own applications and others. 4690 is the successor product to IBM

4680 OS FlexOS is a discontinued modular real-time multiuser multitasking operating system (RTOS) designed for computer-integrated manufacturing, laboratory, retail and financial markets. Developed by Digital Research's Flexible Automation Business U ...

, which was in use by IBM customers since 1986. The original 4680 OS was based on Digital Research's Concurrent DOS 286, a system thereafter renamed to

FlexOS 286 FlexOS is a discontinued modular real-time multiuser multitasking operating system (RTOS) designed for computer-integrated manufacturing, laboratory, retail and financial markets. Developed by Digital Research's Flexible Automation Business U ...

in November 1986. In July 1993, IBM adopted FlexOS version 2.32 as the basis of their 4690 OS version 1. FlexOS 2.32 supported ''286'' ( Intel 80286) and ''386'' ( Intel 80386) modes and had no limit on applications running concurrently. In 1995, IBM licensed IMS REAL/32 7.50, a derivative of Digital Research's Multiuser DOS and thereby a successor to

Concurrent DOS 386 Multiuser DOS is a real-time multi-user multi-tasking operating system for IBM PC-compatible microcomputers. An evolution of the older Concurrent CP/M-86, Concurrent DOS and Concurrent DOS 386 operating systems, it was originally developed by ...

, to bundle it with their 4695 POS terminals. According to the article "The Year of the Store?", IHL Consulting Group/RIS News, IBM 4690 OS still had a market share of 12% in the POS register client market in June 2005, when IBM was starting to phase it out in favor of IBM Retail Environment for SUSE (IRES). IBM continued to maintain 4690 OS until April 2015, with the most recent version released by IBM in May 2012 being IBM 4690 OS Version 6 Release 3, which was supported until 2017 under special contracts with big-name companies. Meanwhile, Toshiba has released ''Toshiba 4690 OS'' Version 6 Release 4 (V6R4) in January 2014, and Version 6 Release 5 (V6R5) in January 2016. In 2018, a Linux-based successor of 4690 OS, named ''TCx Sky'' and codeveloped with Wind River Systems, was launched. Soon after, Toshiba discontinued 4690 OS for new customers; it is, however, still supported under service contracts signed between Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions and stores still using 4690 OS on their POS terminals. The latest security update (CSD Level 2010) was released in December 2020, only for 4690 OS Version 6 Release 5. Retailers are using the 4690 Operating System for their operations because of its many retail-specific and reliability features. In addition to running on IBM hardware, third-party vendors have exploited the 4690 features on competitive hardware.

Supported hardware

4690 supports many POS terminal devices, store controller servers, and combination controller–terminals. The 4690 documentation contains a list of supported POS devices, some in use over 20 years. The family of IBM Universal Serial Bus ( USB) POS devices that 4690 supports includes keyboards, displays, and cash drawers. 4690 also supports other input/output (I/O) devices designed and conforming to IBM's USB POS device interface specifications. IBM makes interface specifications available to third-party vendors to enable them to connect their devices to POS terminals using RS-485, RS-232, and USB connections. IBM provides a ''Controller Matrix'' document with a list of compatible IBM servers for use with 4690 OS as store controllers and controller–terminals. These servers represent current and formerly available devices which continue to be supported by 4690.

Notable features

Perhaps the most notable feature of the 4690 OS is its ability to provide a "redundancy infrastructure". IBM designed the 4690 OS to work either as one server, or with one or more other 4690 servers. These servers are commonly called ''store controllers''. When connected in a local area network (LAN), these 4690 store controllers provide redundant backup using mirrored data files. Using a system of ''master controller'', ''alternate master'', ''file server'', and ''alternate file server'' designations, the controllers preserve data integrity and allow file backup in case a store controller fails and needs to be replaced. A copy of the 4690 OS is maintained in each store controller. The 4690 POS terminals (registers) load a copy of 4690 from the store controller into memory when they

Initial Program Load In computing, booting is the process of starting a computer as initiated via hardware such as a button or by a software command. After it is switched on, a computer's central processing unit (CPU) has no software in its main memory, so so ...

(IPL). The 4690 controllers provide terminal support in the form of terminal loading, price lookup, and transaction logging. Non-volatile memory is used to ensure that data is not lost in transit from the terminals to the store controller. Terminals are assigned to a primary store controller, and that controller is typically backed up by another controller. If the primary controller fails, the terminals automatically access the backup controller, providing uninterrupted sales at the POS terminal. If both the primary and backup controllers are unavailable, the terminal can go into a standalone state, or, some of the applications are able to support a ''Terminal Offline'' (TOF) state wherein terminals run offline using a terminal-based item file and logging stored in their own memory. To maintain software at the store level, 4690 OS provides a ''software maintenance facility'' to manage updates. This facility provides checking to ensure that all updates have been transferred to the store, and the ability to apply the maintenance from store level commands or under central control. The updated software can be applied in ''test'', which preserves the prior software in case the maintenance needs to be backed off for some reason. 4690 supports communications to the store controller in several forms. including TCP/IP,

X.25 X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet-switched data communication in wide area networks (WAN). It was originally defined by the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT, now ITU-T) in a series of drafts a ...

, Systems Network Architecture (SNA), and asynchronous communications.

Commands

The following list of

commands Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on Apple Macintosh computer keyboards * ...

are supported by the 4690 Operating System. * ASSIGN *

BACKUP In information technology, a backup, or data backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form, referring to the process of doing so, is "back up", w ...

* BATCH * BREAK * BURNISO *

CHDIR The command, also known as (change directory), is a command-line shell command used to change the current working directory in various operating systems. It can be used in shell scripts and batch files. Implementations The command has been ...

* CHKDSK * CLS * COMMAND * COMP * COPY * DEFINE * DIR * DISKCOMP * DISKCOPY * ECHO * ELSE * ERASE * EXIT * FCOPY * FIND *

FOR For or FOR may refer to: English language *For, a preposition *For, a complementizer *For, a grammatical conjunction Science and technology * Fornax, a constellation * for loop, a programming language statement * Frame of reference, in physic ...

FORMAT Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

* FSET *

GOTO GoTo (goto, GOTO, GO TO or other case combinations, depending on the programming language) is a statement found in many computer programming languages. It performs a one-way transfer of control to another line of code; in contrast a function ca ...

* IF * LIST *

MKDIR The mkdir (make directory) command in the Unix, DOS, DR FlexOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, and ReactOS operating systems is used to make a new directory. It is also available in the EFI shell and in the PHP scripting language. In DOS, OS/2, ...

MORE More or Mores may refer to: Computing * MORE (application), outline software for Mac OS * more (command), a shell command * MORE protocol, a routing protocol * Missouri Research and Education Network Music Albums * ''More!'' (album), by Booka ...

* ORDER * PATH * PAUSE * PRINT *

PROMPT Prompt may refer to: Computing * Command prompt, characters indicating the computer is ready to accept input * Command Prompt, also known as cmd.exe or cmd, the command-line interpreter in some operating systems * Prompt (natural language), instr ...

* QUERY *

REM Rem or REM may refer to: Music * R.E.M., an American rock band * ''R.E.M.'' (EP), by Green * "R.E.M." (song), by Ariana Grande Organizations * La République En Marche!, a French centrist political party * Reichserziehungsministerium, in Nazi G ...

RENAME Rename may refer to: * Rename (computing), rename of a file on a computer * RENAME (command), command to rename a file in various operating systems * Rename (relational algebra) In relational algebra, a rename is a unary operation written as \r ...

* RESTORE * RMDIR * SECURITY * SHIFT *

SORT Sort may refer to: * Sorting, any process of arranging items in sequence or in sets ** Sorting algorithm, any algorithm for arranging elements in lists ** Sort (Unix), a Unix utility which sorts the lines of a file ** Sort (C++), a function in the ...

* SYS * TREE *

TYPE Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

* UNLOCKP *

VER Ver or VER may refer to: * Voluntary Export Restraints, in international trade * VER, the IATA airport code for General Heriberto Jara International Airport * Volk's Electric Railway, Brighton, England * VerPublishing, of the German group VDM Publ ...

* VERIFY *

VOL Vol or Vols may refer to: * Vol (command), a computer operating system command * Vol (heraldry), a heraldic charge * Volatility (finance) * Volume (disambiguation) * Volunteer (Irish republican) * Nashville Vols, an American minor league baseball t ...

Technology and software

4690 OS has been updated annually to address the needs of its user community and in anticipation of upcoming requirements. 4690 Version 5 incorporated new security enhancements, such as Secure Shell (SSH), IPsec, and enhanced operator security (allowing alphanumeric operator IDs, password complexity requirements, password expiration, etc.). This has helped its users address new security requirements from the credit card companies. Another recent addition to 4690 was the ability to forward store hardware- and software-level events to a Remote Management system to facilitate central control and monitoring. File integrity monitoring and lockdown of 4690s are becoming increasingly important due to recent breaches caused by point-of-sale malware based threats. 4690 supports applications written in a

CBASIC CBASIC is a compiled version of the BASIC programming language written for the CP/M operating system by Gordon Eubanks in 1976–1977. It is an enhanced version of BASIC-E. History BASIC-E was Eubank's master's thesis project. It was developed ...

variant named IBM 4680 BASIC, Metaware High- C, and Java 2. The Java language-based ability at both the server and the client, along with the extension of Internet protocol suite TCP/IP ability to the client, enables Java applications at both the server and client to run concurrently with extant CBASIC or C applications. Users can make functional enhancements to extant applications by developing a new Java application that communicates with an extant application.

Versions

IBM 4690 Operating System versions: * 1 (July 1993) * 2 release 1 * 2 release 2 * 2 release 3 * 2 release 4 * 3 release 1 * 3 release 2 * 3 release 3 * 4 release 1 * 4 release 2 * 5 release 1 * 5 release 2 * 6 release 1 * 6 release 2 * 6 release 3 (May 2012) Toshiba 4690 Operating System versions: * 6 release 4 (January 2014) * 6 release 5 Classic – Enhanced (January 2016)

References

External links

*
Data Format Description Language (DFDL) schemas for IBM 4690 ACE
to parse and write IBM 4690 ACE transaction logs {{Disk operating systems IBM operating systems DOS variants Real-time operating systems Retail point of sale systems C (programming language) software Divested IBM products 1993 software