>>> they're not using Ethernet or something less obsolete
>>
>> Which ethernet? Thick? Thin Coax? cat-5? Test equipment like this is
>> expected to last decades.
> 
> Cat 5, Cat 5e, Cat 6 ... one of those, UTP or STP.
> 
> Of course, that's just the wire. Some of the stuff I worked on used CAN 
> bus over STP Cat 6 cable.. A lot of modern control systems use Ethernet 
> to communicate with the host, some even use it to communicate from 
> device to device, others use CAN.

Where I work, we have devices which communicate via Ethernet.

Actually no, they don't. They communicate by RS-232. But the 
manufacturers supply an RS-323 over Ethernet box, and software which you 
install on your PC which makes the old RS-232 software think that the 
Ethernet link *is* RS-232.

In other words, you have hardware emulation at one end, and software 
emulation at the other end. And all so that they don't have to, you 
know, actually design their hardware to natively support Ethernet, and 
their software to natively support IP. :-P

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message