Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Including point of sale terminal or electronic cash register
Reexamination Certificate
1997-04-17
2001-02-27
Kemper, M. (Department: 2764)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Including point of sale terminal or electronic cash register
C705S016000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06195645
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a data communication system having a plurality of terminals connected to a communication line.
BACKGROUND ART
Conventionally, in a master/slave type POS (point-of-sale) system, the master unit sequentially designates the respective slave units (e.g. electric cash registers (ECRs) as POS terminals) according to a polling system to enable the collection or consolidation of sales data or the transferring of set data, or an inquiry with respect to inventory. That is, the master unit designates, one by one, the associated ECRs in a predetermined sequence to perform processing such as the collection, consolidation, etc., of data.
In this way, the master unit manages all the slave units and effects operations such as the collection and consolidation of data, thus placing a burden on the master unit. Where the master unit, in particular, serves as an ECR, there is the problem that the master unit per se cannot perform a registration of sales data until it has finished effecting processing on the last slave unit.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a communication system having a plurality of terminals connected via communication line in a manner such that the burden on a master unit in the processing of the data is decreased.
According to the present invention, there is provided a data communication method which is for use in a data communication system having a plurality of data processing apparatuses connected via a communication line, wherein one of the data processing apparatuses causes another processing apparatus to execute data processing,-the method comprising the following steps of:
a) enabling one of the data processing apparatuses serving as a master unit to generate a-work designation message containing a program statement for performing predetermined data processing and to transmit the work designation message to another apparatus;
b) enabling the apparatus which receives the work designation message to perform data processing in accordance with the program statement contained in the work designation message;
c) enabling the apparatus which receives the work designation message to transmit the work designation message to a next apparatus in a predetermined order; and
d) completing the data processing when the master unit receives, from the next apparatus, the work designation message generated therefrom.
According to the present invention, moreover, there is provided a data communication system having a plurality of data processing apparatuses connected via a communication line, each of the data processing apparatuses comprising:
transmitting/receiving means for receiving data from the communication line and for transmitting data to the communication line;
memory means for storing a work designation message which is received by the-transmitting/receiving means from another data processing apparatus;
processing means for performing predetermined processing on the basis of the work designation message stored in the memory means; and
transferring means for transmitting the work designation message which is stored in the memory means to a next data processing apparatus in accordance with a predetermined order.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4398250 (1983-08-01), Hosono
patent: 4502120 (1985-02-01), Ohnishi et al.
patent: 4594664 (1986-06-01), Hashimoto
patent: 4841442 (1989-06-01), Hosoyama
patent: 5189607 (1993-02-01), Shirasaki et al.
patent: 5251214 (1993-10-01), Mertens et al.
patent: 5256863 (1993-10-01), Ferguson et al.
patent: 5920267 (1999-07-01), Tattersall et al.
patent: 331 442 (1989-09-01), None
patent: 0 395 428 (1990-10-01), None
patent: 0 405 594 (1991-01-01), None
patent: 0 553 988 A2 (1993-08-01), None
patent: 2 206 225 (1988-12-01), None
Giambra, “Performance Considerations for Token Ring Networks” Southern Tier Technical Conference pp. 268-275, 1988.
Itakura Katsuyuki
Toma Kazuyoshi
Casio Computer Co. Ltd.
Frishauf, Holtz Goodman, Langer & Chick, P.C.
Kemper M.
LandOfFree
Data communication system does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Data communication system, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Data communication system will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2564512