News Release from: GarrettCom Europe
Subject: Magnum Control Room products
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 5 February 2002

Ethernet takes control on the floor

A new range of industrial neworking equipment has moved Ethernet from the office to the shopfloor.

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The migration path from proprietary network protocols to Ethernet on the factory floor has not been smooth. Before GarrettCom rolled out its Magnum Control Room products this month, industrial equipment integrators had their choice of a limited range of solutions from manufacturers of industrial control equipment, products from mainstream LAN providers that were built for the protected office environment, or expensive custom designs. "Although the Ethernet protocol standard used in the field is the same as that used in the office, its implementation is considerably different", said Frank Madren, President and CEO of GarrettCom.

"GarrettCom saw an opportunity to offer the types of products that many industrial applications have had to either use custom solutions or do without".

GarrettCom's Magnum Control Room products combine the flexibility and breadth of an office line of products with the extended operating temperature, noise immunity, and power features required for factory floor use in the industrial automation and control markets.

Industrial control suppliers have been the main source of Ethernet connectivity for factories and other industrial sites, but their focus is on industrial control, not Ethernet flexibility; therefore, their offerings are rarely as broad as the more established lines of office solutions.

Office LAN suppliers have not as a group stepped up to the plate to serve the rapidly expanding market for Ethernet in industrial automation and industrial control applications.

The Magnum Control Room products complement GarrettCom's Magnum Plantwide LAN products, rack-mountable Ethernet hubs and switches for plant IT centres, which typically serve a mix of computer users and industrial control devices.

GarrettCom's expanding network of VARs and distributors appreciate GarrettCom's sensitivity to the needs of their industrial customers.

"GarrettCom's Magnum Control Room products make our integration job a lot easier.

We can set up an entirely new control implementation or migrate to Ethernet from a single source without issues", said Greg Miller, President and COO of Donavan Networking in Calgary, Alberta.

"Our customers receive an added benefit because the Magnum Ethernet products offer a significant price advantage over products offered by industrial-only Ethernet suppliers".

The GarrettCom Magnum Control Room product line includes a wide selection of small-footprint 10, 100 and 10/100Mbit/s Ethernet hubs and switches designed to provide maximum performance in tight spaces.

All come with optional DIN-rail mounting capability and are rated for extended temperatures of at least 50C.

All have AC power and an optional 24V DC configuration.

The fibre ports on Magnum products provide noise immunity and grounding protection, as well as "future protection" with fibre cabling that can support gigabit network speeds as control and automation applications evolve to demand higher performance.

The line includes a full complement of media converters, repeaters, and transceivers, to provide the maximum connectivity and flexibility found in standard office-Ethernet product lines.

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