reference numeral 10 as can be seen pos station 10 includes a microprocessor based host device 12 in the form of a personal computer that communicates with a plurality of peripherals generally identified by reference numeral 14 and with a database 16 storing transaction inventory pricing tax and accounting information in this example peripherals 14 include a keyboard 18 a touch sensitive display screen 20 a payment card scanner 22 a cash drawer 24 a printing device 26 and a barcode scanner 28 host device 12 also communicates with financial institutions not shown such as banks and credit card companies over one or more information networks generally identified by reference numeral 30 printing device 26 is best illustrated in fig2 and includes a printer interface 50 and a printer 52 printer interface 50 comprises a microcontroller 60 a host interface board 62 a printer interface board 64 ram 65 and non volatile flash nand memory 66 printer 52 comprises a microcontroller 70 a communications channel interface board 72 a printer control mechanism 74 and non volatile flash nand memory 76 for example the printer interface 50 may be of the type sold by epson under model no ub eml and printer may be of the type sold by epson under model no tm u200 the non volatile memory 66 stores printer interface firmware that is executed by the microcontroller 60 during initialization and operation of the printing device 26 to permit communications between the host device 12 and the printer 52 and optionally.