Lane Machine

• PC Requirements: pretty lightweight. It's probably not possible to buy a new PC that isn't capable of running IS4C with acceptable performance. RAM is usually the biggest bottleneck, but even then many stores are operating registers with less than the 2-4GB that's practically standard these days. Multi-core likely helps with the database+webserver workload, but again that's pretty common now. Disk space is dirt cheap; just get something in the 250GB range and never worry about it again. Gigabit ethernet would be a nice boost if you have infrastructure for it through out, but certainly isn't a requirement. Be aware that many POS peripherals rely on PC ports - serial, parallel, and ps/2 - that are rapidly disappearing on newer PCs, especially if you get something in a small form factor. USB adapters are usually a workable solution.
• Scanner-Scale: nearly all existing code is targeted for and tested on DataLogic Magellan 8xxx series scales. Go with one of these.
• Receipt Printer: again, the easiest solution is to recommend what's already in use: Epson TM-H6000II. Other Epson POS printers may speak a similar enough dialect to be useable. If other stores are using different models, we should add them to this list.
• Cash Drawer: anything that's compatible with your printer (POS cash drawers typically connect to receipt printers).
• Keyboard: IS4C is best operated using a programmable keyboard. The QWERTY keys are used when looking up members or products by name; exactly how many programmable keys you need will vary by how many tenders you accept, departments/products you need shortcuts for, etc. Aim high. It's far better to have extra keys than to run out. A double-zero button on the number pad and an over-sized enter button are both handy features that are reasonably common on POS-keyboards.
• Mouse: strictly speaking, you don't need one, but it's nice for OS-related stuff like shutting down or restarting a machine (especially when a programmed keyboard lacks some normal characters & navigation keys). A trackball is a nice solution for tighter spaces.
• Monitor(s): it's far easier to operate with one. IS4C works fine in 1024x768 or ever 800x600. Finding an incompatible display ought to be nearly impossible. For separate customer and cashier displays, just put in a simple VGA splitter to send the same output to both monitors.

Server Machine(s)

• If you're going to use one server:
  • Get a multi-core, 64-bit processor. 64 bit software is mature enough that the extra RAM ceiling is worth having, even if you start out with 4GB or less.
  • Get a bunch of RAM. 4GB with slots open for expanion is probably a good starting point. If you can afford more, more is always better.
  • Get a bunch of disk space. 250GB is probably sufficient for a long time. Fast disks will help database performance. An SSD plus a normal disk for backups might be the best option these days (as opposed to SAS/SCSI RAID array), both in price/performance ratio and ease of set up management. This would be strictly a performance bonsus; IS4C will run fine on a 7200RPM SATA disk. Two physicals disks total is a good idea to protect local backups from a single drive failure.
  • Gigabit ethernet would be nice if your infrastructure supports it throughout
  • Dual NICs could be handy if you want POS separated from the rest of your network.
• If you're going to use two servers:
  • Get a heavier duty machine exactly as above. Put the database on this machine.
  • Get a lighter weight machine and put Apache+Fannie on that. This is a much lower workload. Basically anything you can lay hands on will be sufficient.
  • Advantages of this set up include:
    • DB Server can dedicate all resources to the most intensive task.
    • Dual servers provide convenient backup locations for each other. You still want off sites of course, but this protects you in the event of a dead disk controller, exploding power supply. or other "entire machine" failure
    • If the Apache machine has dual NICs, the demarcation between POS and non-POS networks is cleaner. Firewall rules that simply don't allow any traffic across that point are simpler than rules permitting certain ports.
    • If one machine fails, you can roll-over to a single server model (quickly and easily if they have mutual backups) while waiting for replacement parts or a replacement server. If the stronger machine goes down, interim performance won't be ideal, but it will at least be functional.
• If you're going to use three servers:
  • Get a lightweight machine for Apache + Fannie.
  • Get a heavy duty machine for database work. Put historical transaction data on this machine and use it to generate reports.
  • Get a machine somewhere inbetween these two to act as the POS server.
  Note: the three server set up is not officially supported yet. The main idea of this set up is to alleviate pressure on the main POS server. The only database functionality that's truly resource intensive is querying against a large segment of transaction data. Shipping this data to a dedicated machine means complex or long term reporting - which isn't really time-sensitive - won't bog down anything else.

Label-printing scales (Deli/Bulk/Prepack/Etc)

Shelf tags