Re: Debian + PC with multi RS... port -> n x (text dumb terminal + printer)
Nicola Bernardelli wrote:
> But I never heard of PC's with 8 or 16 LPTs, while I hear of multi serial
> IO cards with that number of ports.
That's right, neither have I.
> > I'll bet you're setting up a point of sale system.
>
> Bingo. I don't feel like doing it so much, but I should _hope_ to instead.
>
> > with a linux server, and POS systems that were 286
> > or 8088 machines with printers attached. Then you would set up software for
> > the POS systems, to let them function as terminals, and/or output what data
> > they receive to their printers. This fixes your cable length problem, you
> > only run one cable, and the price is probably not much larger (unless you
> > get them for free, dumb terminals cost more than you would expect).
>
> What is a POS system?
POS = point of sale.
Hm, there are probably commercial solutions here as well. Of course then you
don't get to run debian on it. :-/
> What software runs on it? What does such a PC need to boot at startup?
If you were willing to go with 386 class PC's, you could strip them down to
a special ethernet card with the kernel in ROM (or, a normal ethernet card
and a floppy disk drive), a video card, a printer port, and 2 to 4 MB of
memory (plus keyboard, screen, and printer, of course). That can boot linux
over the network, and then you could write the POS app in linux.
> What ethernet cards are suitable for a 8088 or 80286?
> Will
> the people for which I will be building the application find good-looking
> one-year-warranty such outdated machines?
Well, it's possible thay you will be able to find all the parts you need
new. I'm not sure if unused 286 or 386 chips are still being sold -
everything else can be bought new, though.
--
see shy jo
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