4690 Operating System

4690 Operating System
Developer(Digital Research, Novell, IMS) IBM, Toshiba
Written inC
Supported languages: IBM 4680 BASIC,
Metaware High-C,
Java 2
Working stateCurrent
Source modelProprietary
Initial releaseJuly 1993; 31 years ago (1993-07) (1985)
Final release6.5 / January 2016; 8 years ago (2016-01)
Marketing targetPoint of sale
Available inEnglish
Package managerProprietary ASM (Apply Software Maintenance) System
PlatformsPoint of sale terminals
Kernel typeReal-time operating system
Default
user interface		Command-line interface, some screens spawn a Java-based graphical user interface (GUI)
LicenseProprietary
Preceded byFlexOS 386, 4680 OS, REAL/32
Succeeded byTCx Sky v1.1
Official websiteToshiba Commerce: Operating Systems

4690 Operating System (sometimes shortened to 4690 OS or 4690) is a specially designed point of sale (POS) operating system, originally sold by IBM. In 2012, IBM sold its retail business, including this product, to Toshiba, which assumed support.[1] 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, which was in use by IBM customers since 1986.[2] The original 4680 OS was based on Digital Research's Concurrent DOS 286,[3] a system thereafter renamed to FlexOS 286 in November 1986.

In July 1993,[2] IBM adopted FlexOS version 2.32 as the basis of their 4690 OS version 1.[1][4] 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, to bundle it with their 4695 POS terminals.[5]

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).[2]

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.[6]

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.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference IBM_2010_4690 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Novell_2005_Linux was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference CBR_1987_FlexOS-286 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference IBM_1993_4690 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference IMS_1995_REAL32 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Support News". Toshiba Commerce.