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CHAPTER 5: On-Screen Functions, Same-Port Users, and Connection Modes
If your application requires that more than two users be able to independently
access any computer in the system at all times, there are a couple of solutions you
might want to investigate, although each of them involves an additional investment
in hardware:
1. You can purchase one or more ServSwitch Affinity units. These are extremely
similar to the Matrix ServSwitches, but they support as many as sixteen fully
independent global users. (Matrix ServSwitches can even be added to a
daisychained Affinity system, although only two of the Affinity-system users
would be able to reach the CPUs attached to the Matrix Switch at any given
time.) In most cases, this option will be vastly easier and more cost-effective.
2. You can purchase a set of ServShare switches. These switches are designed to
allow multiple users to share a single computer, so if you attach one of these
to each computer in your system as shown in Figure 5-5, users can contend for
access to the computers through the ServShares instead of across the bus.
While it is true that this kind of installation can be used to create large
switching matrices with many users, there are several things to keep in mind
about it: Administering and maintaining such a hardware configuration can
be very challenging. We strongly recommend using one or more ServSwitch
Affinity units instead. Before installing an advanced configuration like this,
please call Black Box and discuss your application with a technician.
Figure 5-5. A 6-user-by-8-computer Matrix ServSwitch/ServShare system.
CPUs
Optional*
*Linked Switches can all be configured from the same station, but port numbering and selection are not as simple.
4-Port
ServShares
Matrix
ServSwitch 3
Matrix
ServSwitch 2
Matrix
ServSwitch 1
User
stations
Optional*
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