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In
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COVER
STORIES
NEW
PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS
PRODUCT
APPLICATIONS
MOXA
NEWS
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COVER
STORIES
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| UC-7420—The
Best Industrial Router Platform |
A
router is a TCP/IP layer 3 network device that redirects—or
routes—IP packets between different physical networks
or network segments. A router can also be used to separate
one network into several sub-networks. To work properly, the
router must support the protocols of all networks connected
to the router, as well as the WAN ports that connect to the
Internet. Such protocols include PPPoE, async (serial) ports,
sync ports, and T1 ports. The router must also perform well
enough to handle TCP/IP packet transfer. Since the router
forwards packets from one network to another, it must support
strong enough security features to ensure safe communication.
For example, the router should support common security features
such as being able to create a firewall, IPSec, OpenVPN, or
OpenSSL to protect sub-networks from hackers. The router must
also have at least two Ethernet ports to separate the network
into two sub-networks.
What's
the difference between industrial and commercial routers?
Compared with commercial routers, which are designed to
be used in climate controlled, air conditioned settings,
industrial routers can be installed in harsher industrial
environments. For this reason, industrial routers must be
more reliable and robust, and be able to continue operating
even when subjected to a wide range of temperatures. Moreover,
low power consumption and small form factor are better suited
for use in the field. A RISC-based CPU platform provides
acceptable performance, but at a lower power level than
other types of CPU, eliminating the need to install a special
CPU cooling fan.
What
benefits does Moxa UC-7420 provide when used as a router
platform?
Moxa UC-7420
uses the Intel IXP-422 X-scale CPU. The processor is designed
for network processing, so it is very powerful for packet
transfer. The system as a whole consumes very little power
at only 12W, and UC-7420
is Linux-ready, meaning that users can save a great deal
of development time and effort by not needing to worry about
installing the OS themselves. In short, router manufacturers
can develop routing applications very quickly by using UC-7420
as the platform.
Another
major concern is security, particularly when the router
redirects packets from the Internet to a private LAN. To
answer this concern, UC-7420
supports IPtables for setting up a Firewall, OpenSSL, OpenVPN,
OpenSSH, and IPSec. In addition, hardware encryption lays
a good foundation for secure communications. UC-7400
comes with two Ethernet ports that support PPPoE, and the
on-board RS-232 ports can be used as a remote serial console,
to let administrators configure and monitor the router even
when the network is down.
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| Moxa's
Multiport Serial Boards to Support FreeBSD 5.x |
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Starting
at the end of June, 2005, Moxa's full line of multiport
serial boards will support the FreeBSD 5.x and 4.x operating
systems. This development is sure to come as great news
for the many people and organizations around the world that
use FreeBSD, which is well known for being a highly stable
systems OS.
Moxa
carries multiport serial boards that support ISA, PCI,
Universal
PCI V1, and Universal PCI V2 connection types, serial communication
speed up to 921.6 Kbps, and various connection cables
and
boxes for RS-232/422/485 interfaces. In addition, CP-104UL
V2, CP-132UL
V2, and CP-132UL-I
V2 are MD1 low profile boards suitable for
compact PCs. For added protection, many boards come
with 15
KV ESD Surge
Protection and 2 KV Optical Isolation Protection.
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| Upgrading to Moxa Wireless is Fast and Easy |
Moxa's
family of wireless serial device servers consists of three
products—the 4-port NPort
W2004, 2-port W2250,
and 1-port W2150.
All three products support RS-232/422/485 for a 3-in-1 serial
interface, allowing users to connect most serial devices to
a WiFi 802.11g/b wireless LAN.
Moxa's wireless device servers are ideal for connecting
serial devices to the network in hard to wire environments.
In addition to the wireless interface, Moxa's wireless
device servers also have an RJ45 Ethernet port that can be
used as an Ethernet console port. The Ethernet port can be
used to provide a backup data transmission route that springs
into action when the wireless connection encounters too much
interference, giving users a more stable and reliable wireless
device server solution.
Moxa's wireless device servers provide a safe, remote
management function that allows network and device managers
to use https from a standard web browser, or use SSH terminal
software to configure the device from a remote host. In addition,
the WEP 64-bit/128-bit wireless safety standard is used to
password protect your data during data transmission and device
management.
Several operation modes, including TCP Server/Client Mode,
UDP Server/Client Mode, Real COM Mode, and Pair Connection
Mode, are provided, making Moxa's wireless device servers
suitable for a wide range of applications, including Industrial
Automation, Medical, Security, POS/Retail, and Building Automation.
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NEW
PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS
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| Moxa
EDS-726 will be ready in July |
|
 EDS-726,
Moxa's new industrial Gigabit backbone engine, will
be available next month. This high performance and
versatile switch uses a modular design to provide
as many as 2 Gigabit ports and 24 fast Ethernet ports,
and has an angled LED display for easy viewing from
any position in front of the switch. Additional features
include a compact flash card slot for backing up the
configuration, and several intelligent network management
functions, such as VLAN/GVRP, IGMP Snooping/GMRP,
QoS, LACP Port Trunking, and IEEE 802.1X.
The EDS-726
managed Ethernet switch is an ideal solution for backbone
switching applications.
Overall
Features:
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Gigabit Ethernet Redundant Ring Capability
(recovery time < 300 ms)
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LACP for flexible network connections
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IEEE 802.1X to enhance user authentication
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IGMP Snooping and GMRP for filtering multicast traffic
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VLAN capability to ease network planning
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QoS to increase determinism
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Bandwidth management to prevent unpredictable network
status
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Automatic warning by event
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Convenient browser-based configuration
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Network management with EDS-SNMP
OPC Server Pro
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APPLICATIONS
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| FAB
Management—Protocol Conversion Just Got Simpler |
| Introduction
Semi-conductor plants have one characteristic that
in the past has made management more difficult. The
plants use different types of machines that use different
protocols, making it hard to design a coordinated
system that can collect, analyze, and process data
from all stations in the plant. Moxa's UC-7420
helps out by providing an "open" programming
platform for users to download their own custom protocol
conversion software. Data can also be transferred
to several backend hosts simultaneously.
Protocol
Conversion and Front-End Data Processing
The data collected on a FAB floor can come from different
devices. One of the tasks that the UC-7420 unit must
handle is protocol conversion, since there is no guarantee
that all of the devices will use the same protocol.
In addition, the UC-7420 can be used to do preliminary
data processing before downloading data to the central
computer. Moxa's UC-7420 is ideally suited for these
tasks, since the user can easily embed a C program
that is custom written for the devices used at the
station. If future changes involve adding or removing
devices, the programmer simply needs to modify the
C code, recompile it, and then download the executable
program to the UC unit.
Connecting
to the Network and the Internet
In addition to being programmable, UC also offers
users with an array of connection options. To begin
with, data entering the serial ports from attached
sensors can be processed and then forwarded through
one or both of the dual Ethernet ports to the LAN.
One of the serial ports can also be connected to a
V.90 or GPRS modem for PPP connections, and a PCMCIA
port is available for installing a wireless LAN card
for 802.11b/g networks.
Benefits
of Using Moxa's Universal Communicator
• No fan, no hard drive design for longer MTBF
• CompactFlash slot for adding Gigabytes of
storage space
• Multiple connection options for greater networking
versatility
• Programmability gives system integrators infinite
possibilities
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| Using
MOXA Serial Boards to Create an Intelligent Transportation
System |
| Products:
CP-104UL V2, CP-168U V2, C320Turbo/PCI
Country: Taiwan
Overall benefits: Reduces installation and operational costs
The current trend of ITS (Intelligent Transportation System)
applications is to use e-Automation control and data processing
platforms. Many principalities are installing platforms
in highway, freeway, and city transportation systems. These
systems handle speed auditing, dynamically displayed LED
signboards, and traffic signal control systems.
In recent
years, the ITS market has experienced a major upswing in
Asia, and especially in Taiwan and China. Freeway tollgates
make use of many types of serial equipment, such as speed
detectors, searchlights, and cameras. By using Moxa CP-168U
V2/CP-104UL
V2, and other Moxa multiport serial boards, we can connect
all types of serial equipment to an IPC, allowing the host
computer at the tollgate to collect information sent from
IPCs via modems through Moxa C320T/PCI
(maximum of 128 ports). The information can be sent back to the
tollgate center for processing and further analysis, resulting
in a more powerful, efficient, safer, and automated freeway
transportation system.
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| How
Wireless M2M Technology Helps Public Safety Personnel Increase
Mobility |
| Compared
to hardwired networks, implementing wireless M2M technology
can reduce the cost of installing cabling, save time, and
reduce the amount of labor required. In addition, some wireless
solutions also increase workforce mobility. Today, wireless
M2M technology is helping public safety agencies by giving
them an easier way to respond quickly to their central communication
center. Here is one innovative application of how public
safety personnel implement wireless technology to help streamline
their everyday tasks.
-
Background
Fast and effective communication is essential when police,
fire, EMS, and other public safety agencies are involved.
Instant access to critical information, including DMV
records, and local, state, or federal databases, is also
important. Officers must be prepared to handle many different
problems, and complete various tasks, such as filing criminal
reports. As demand for services grows, better tools are
needed to ensure that agencies can continue to address
the needs of their communities effectively.
Numerous law enforcement agencies worldwide use tablet
PCs or handheld PDAs in their vehicles to make their job
more efficient. These agencies are using the systems to
respond to emergency calls from their central communication
center, download detailed information about a vehicle
or person, access State (MICR) and Federal (NCIC) databases
via a wireless interface to upload the person's ID, and
receive historical data and information during an investigation.
- The
Problem
The mobile PC or handheld device connects to the local
wireless public safety network via COM ports on the vehicle
docking system. Although officers can move the tablet
PCs and PDAs from place to place, data can only be transmitted
or received when the device is connected to the vehicle
docking system. This means that the handheld devices will
not be able to communicate with the central communication
center when the officials are conducting an investigation
or compiling a report outside of the vehicle.
- The
Solution
One
system integrator uses Moxa's 2-port wireless device server
on the docking system. One serial port connects to the
proprietary wireless public safety network, and the other
is connected to the GPS system in the vehicle. The tablet
PC transmits data to the device server continuously via
the 802.11b interface if the handheld device is within
a certain distance of the wireless device server. With
Moxa's virtual COM driver installed on the Windows-based
tablet PC, system integrators can quickly adapt to the
technology, and are now able to provide officers with a quick solution. This process leads to improved efficiency
for the officer standing on the side of the road or working
at a crime scene by providing clear, concise, and accurate
electronic information that can be passed instantly to
the control center.
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MOXA
NEWS |
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| Moxa
Technologies Welcomes KMJ Communications |
Moxa
Technologies would like to welcome new Device Networking
Distributor, KMJ Communications. KMJ Communications
will be providing Moxa Device Networking products, which
include Serial Device Servers, Embedded Device Servers,
Multiport Serial Boards, Video-over-IP Servers, and
Media Converters, to customers throughout the United
States. Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, KMJ Communications
will use its expertise and experience in the communications
field to help Moxa Technologies reach more customers
in the Device Networking market.
KMJ Communications started out in 1988 as a classical
representative company, and is now a successful distributor
of products that connect or interconnect network systems
for the industrial and commercial markets. KMJ Communications
provides service to customers in the entire United States,
and primarily emphasizes products that enable Async
serial devices to connect to Ethernet networks. KMJ
is committed to providing first rate sales and technical
support for all of the products they sell.
Moxa Technologies is proud to have KMJ Communications
as a partner and looks forward to great business opportunities
in the future. For more information on KMJ Communications,
please visit their company website at www.kmj.com.
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PROMOTIONS
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| Multiport
Serial Board Guidebook |
| Extreme Serial Performance Technology
This new brochure from Moxa Technologies shows how Moxa's multiport serial cards are used in every facet of your life. Multiport serial cards are installed in the slots inside a PC, with slots available for ISA, PCI, PCI-X, and PC/104 busses. Today, multiport serial cards are commonly used for controlling external devices from different applications, including industrial automation, building automation, CNC machines, and more.
Moxa's serial cards provide fleibility, speed, reliability, and efficiency. In adition, you get the following benefits by using Moxa's serial cards:
- Get true flexibility, with the best choice of bus platform,
connector type, COM port interface, and connection module.
- Choose from various bus interfaces: ISA, PC/104, PCI, PCI-X, and PCI Express.
- Highest performance that meets all speed-demanding and data intensive communication
applications.
- Use a variety of connection cables or boxes for RS-232/422/485.
- Drivers for many different operating systems:
DOS, Windows, Linux, UNIX.
Click here to get a copy of this brochure.
You may also contact Moxa directly by e-mail or phone.
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| Video
over Gigabit IP Networks Brochure |
Video
over Gigabit is right down the road
The booming
popularity of network technology has stimulated the development
of larger bandwidth and more versatile media. In fact, the
reality of "everything networked" will be here
before we know it. The following topics are covered in this
4-page brochure:
- Video
over IP
- Gigabit
Networks are on their way
- Managing
your Video over Gigabit Network
1. Redundant Ring structure for network reliability
2. IGMP, VLAN, and QoS for efficient traffic and bandwidth
management
3. The 802.1X guarantee of network security
- It's
Time to Look at Your IP Network
Click
here to get a copy of this brochure. You may also contact
Moxa directly by e-mail or phone.
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| White Paper: The Next Link in IPC Evolution—Embedded Systems for Industry |
| The
industrial world has always had the need for control schemes
to handle manufacturing and management processes, with even
the earliest generations of engineers inventing machinery
to put their control designs into practice. The development
of PCs towards the end of the last century presented engineers
with an important tool for implementing complex control
algorithms that blend multiple sensor signals into actuator
commands. However, people soon realized that PCs designed
for the office and home environments had severe limitations
when used in harsher industrial settings.
"The Next Link in IPC Evolution" white paper discusses how
industrial PCs have evolved over the years, and how newer
products, such as Moxa's family of Universal Communicators,
are better suited for industrial computing.
Click
here, and then click on the orange Download White Paper
link to get a copy of this white paper. You may also contact
Moxa directly by e-mail or phone.
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| Flash:
Front-end Embedded Computer for Industrial Device Networking |
Moxa's
UC-7400
front-end embedded computer, with 8 RS-232/422/485 serial
ports, dual Ethernet ports, and a Linux-based no fan, no
hard drive design, is more than just another mini IPC. UC-7400
gives your applications a "localized computing power."
Click
here to access our interactive Flash file to learn more
about UC-7400.
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| Moxa's
Wireless Device Server Daily Winner Contest is Coming to a
Close |
| Moxa's Wireless
Device Server Daily Winner Contest has been a smashing success!
The contest began on May 1, and will end promptly on June
30. The contest has generated a substantial amount of interest
in Moxa's wireless device servers. Over the past two months,
we've received more than 450 applications, and have given
away more than 40 NPort W2150 wireless device servers to
people around the world. If you are interested in one of
Moxa's products, please contact us by e-mail at info@MoxaUSA.com
(The Americas) or info@moxa.com.tw
(worldwide). Additional contact information is available
on Moxa's website at www.moxa.com/contact_moxa/contact_moxa_home.htm.
Click
here to view the winner's list!
Contest
Information |
Name:
Date: |
Wireless
Device Server Daily Winner
Runs from May 1 to June 30 of this year
We
are giving away 1 NPort 2150 each work day! |
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DID
YOU KNOW? |
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--
by Tim Stemple
Did
you know that in 1902, Murray, Kentucky,
resident Nathan Stubblefield demonstrated a primitive
wireless telephone to a crowd of curious onlookers?
The event was reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
on January 12 of that year, and subsequently generated
much excitement from investors apparently interested
in exploiting Stubblefield's inventions for practical
use. Unfortunately for Stubblefield, the investors'
true intention was merely to make a fast buck, and
this
regrettable experience with the business end of inventing
helped drive Stubblefield into seclusion.
In fact, the 42-year old self-educated melon farmer
had been experimenting with telephone designs for many
years, and was known around Murray as a somewhat eccentric
genius. Historical accounts of Stubblefield's
life report that he died of starvation in an out of
the way shack—accompanied only by his pet cat.
He was penniless at the time, and apparently had already
destroyed all prototypes of his various inventions.
What we do know of the technology that Stubblefield
created comes from the patents he submitted to the
United States patent office.
I stumbled across the Stubblefield story in the process
of researching this month's topic of "wireless
communication," and found it rather intriguing.
Although some people have credited Stubblefield with
the invention of radio, that claim is a bit farfetched,
and Stubblefield does not seem to have had a direct
influence on, or contribution to subsequent advances
in radio technology. (This view, however, is also disputed.
Some people go so far as to speculate that Tesla came
across one of Stubblefield’s prototypes before
patenting his radio transmitter designs.)
The mainstream story of how wireless communication
came to be is intriguing in its own right. In the early
1830s, the British experimentalist Michael Faraday
discovered the principle of electromagnetic induction,
which recognizes the relationship between a changing
magnetic field (e.g., from a moving magnet) and electric
field. Faraday's theoretical complement was James
Clerk Maxwell, who published his famous general equations
of the electromagnetic field in 1864. Maxwell's
theory predicted the existence of "electromagnetic
waves" that can propagate through empty space.
This 1-2 punch from the British duo of Faraday and
Maxwell also helped to revive the Cartesian concept
of an all-pervasive luminiferous ether (the same ether
that Einstein helped to debunk in the early 20th Century).
It was left to Heinrich Hertz of Germany to demonstrate
experimentally the propagation of electromagnetic waves,
and then to Guglielmo Marconi—undoubtedly the
most famous radio pioneer of all—to help make
radio practical. Nikolas Tesla also played a pivotal
role in the development of radio technology by improving
the radio frequency generators and tuned receiving
circuits that others were using at the turn of the
20th Century.
One hundred years ago, one of the prime motives behind
the development of radio technology was to provide
a means for communicating without wires over
long distances. Moxa's interest in wireless is
mainly with wireless serial device servers, which are
used to provide end-users with a convenient means of
connecting serial devices to a TCP/IP network. In this
case, the wireless signal is transmitted over a distance
of only tens of feet. The convenience of wireless device
servers can come from one of several factors. For some
users, the fact that Ethernet cables are not required
to connect the device server to a LAN port is a big
plus. Using fewer cables not only saves money, but
can also make the operation more reliable, in part
because people cannot trip over a cable that's
not there.
Another major benefit of wireless device servers is
that they can be used to add mobility to some applications,
or add connectivity to applications that are already
mobile. For example, consider a forklift driver whose
job it is to move merchandise from a warehouse to a
waiting semi. By connecting a barcode scanner to
a wireless device server, the forklift driver can update
the warehouse database as soon as an item is removed
from the shelf. It's easy to imagine how the
simple act of giving forklift drivers mobile barcode
scanners can improve the efficiency of a large warehouse
that maintains a small army of forklifts. Being able
to update a warehouse database in real-time means that
items can be manufactured or restocked as soon as needed,
and customers can be given realistic estimates of the
amount of time they must wait for a shipment to arrive.
Moxa's own enthusiasm for the NPort family of
wireless device servers is already spilling over into
the marketplace. Our "Wireless Device Server
Daily Winner Contest," which started at the beginning
of May and comes to a close at the end of June, has
attracted the interest of literally hundreds of people
from around the world. If you think your own application
could benefit by "going wireless," feel
free to contact us and let us tell you how to use wireless
networking to create a more efficient operation.
Additional
References
The "Father
of Radio?"
Lives
of a Cell
Origins
of the Radio
Tesla's
Contributions
Pioneers
of Wireless
This common interest column is published each month
in Moxa Connection. Click
here to contact Tim by e-mail.
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