US Patent 7133939 Distributed-service architecture at the point of sale or service

Points of sale or service. According to various embodiment, a point of sale or service includes a register, a peripheral and a protocol converter. The protocol converter communicatively couples the register and the peripheral. The register may communicate with the protocol converter using a first protocol while the peripheral communicates with protocol converter using a second protocol. The register and the protocol converter may communicate using TCP/IP. A second peripheral may communicate with the register using the first protocol and without the aid of the protocol converter. The point of sale or service may further include a processor communicatively coupled to the protocol converter, for accessing the first peripheral.