Advantech Introduces Serial Device Servers

By DE Editors

The Industrial Automation Group of Advantech (Cincinnati, OH) introduces the EKI-1521 and EKI-1522 Serial Device Servers, which allow RS-232/422/485 serial devices to be remotely monitored, managed, and controlled over Ethernet and Internet Protocol (IP) networks.

Equipped with dual 10/100Base-TX Ethernet ports and dual Media Access Controllers (MACs), these devices ensure that data transmission using redundant Ethernet connections is not interrupted in the event of a network problem. With one connection automatically assigned as primary and the other as backup, loss of the primary connection initiates an immediate and automatic switch-over to the backup, ensuring data integrity.

The EKI-1521 and EKI-1522 offer a number of conventional operating modes that allow connections to be initiated by either attached serial devices or remote Ethernet hosts using both UDP/IP and TCP/IP protocols. For applications beyond simple point-to-point connections, two new multi-access modes allow one-to-many and many-to-one communications. The first allows up to five Ethernet hosts to access a single serial device and the second allows a single serial device to simultaneously send data to as many as 16 Ethernet-connected hosts.

Serial transmission speeds have been increased to 921Kbps, allowing a broader range of serial devices to be network enabled. More importantly, optimizations in serial to Ethernet handling have yielded an ultra-fast round-trip latency of less than 10 milliseconds.

The devices offer transparent access to serial devices, are ruggedized for industrial applications, and are packaged in a compact and thin DIN-rail mount chassis.

For details, please contact Advantech Corporation, Industrial Automation Group.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.