Avocent Switchview USB 4-Port

Multiple PC environments are now fairly common in homes and small businesses these days, but space is always problematic if you need them in the same room. Avocent's range of keyboard, video and mouse (KVM) switches has been available to solve this problem for a long time. Now with the introduction of a USB hub, it offers greater flexibility by allowing you to share many of your peripheral devices.

The Switchview is a discreet black box, although it uses bright blue LEDs to indicate which PC you're currently connected to. The four-port USB hub is also at the front for easy access. This allows you to connect your USB devices across all your PCs - useful for sharing PDAs, digital cameras and so on. Disappointingly, it currently only supports USB 1.1 speeds and it won't support USB 2.0 until 2004.

At the rear are ports for PS/2, USB and VGA connectors. Although the unit supports industry standard KVM cables, none are supplied - long KVM cables (up to 9ft) can be purchased separately for £24 (ex. VAT). The highest video resolution supported is 2,048 by 1,536 pixels. All the connectors are colour-coded for easy installation.

In addition to controlling the Switchview via the push buttons, you can use keyboard hotkeys, but only on PS/2 keyboards. It's also possible to upgrade the Switchview by flashing the firmware, although at the time of writing there were no available upgrades.

For £170 (ex. VAT) you can buy a model with audio support, which allows you to route the audio inputs and outputs from all four PCs to a single set of speakers and microphone.

Overall, there are some limitations, but the Switchview does offer the flexibility of being able to share USB peripherals centrally.

Contact: Avocent (01344) 668049
www.avocent.co.uk

Specifications:

• Dimensions: 4.5x20.9x14.2cm
• Number of PCs supported: Four
• Number of USB ports: Four
• USB interface: USB 1.1b
• OS support: Windows NT or higher, Linux 7.3 or higher, Macintosh OS 8.5 or higher, Sun
• Warranty: Two years, RTB Price £120 (ex. VAT)

See also:

3Com Superstack 3870

Gigabit Ethernet moves to the desktop.  15 Sep 2004

Avocent Switchview

Share devices using this four-port device.  27 Nov 2003

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