Avocent Corporation

Cybex Computer Products Corporation

Charles H Williams

Andreas Patzelt

David H Stafford

William J Pinkston

Anton Lischewski

Paul D Durden

Klaus Malinowski

Andreas Szczepanek

Colm Egan

Stefan Langejurgen

Steven M Ahern

John Curran

The present invention relates to a switching system for interconnecting a plurality of computer user terminals or workstations each having user interface devices, including a keyboard, a video display unit, and a cursor control device or mouse (KVM), with a plurality of computers in a computer network, allowing a user to access any one or more of said computers from the user interface devices of a single terminal or workstation. It is denoted &ldquo;high end&rdquo; because of the potentially large number of computers which may be interconnected with the system.

High-end KVM switching system

An apparatus, method, and system for providing control, status, and security functions in a peripheral switch for connecting one or more computers to one or more user stations. Information from a remote terminal is transferred on a network in a packet where the switch information in the packet uses a standardized management protocol. When the packet is received by a network interface card in the peripheral switch the switch information is translated to a proprietary protocol. The peripheral switch then responds to the switch information by performing a control function, providing status information to the remote terminal, or by changing security information. In addition to the transfer of peripheral information from the remote terminal, the peripheral switch is capable of transferring switch information from one of the user stations.

KVM (keyboard, video, and mouse) switch having a network interface circuit coupled to an external network and communicating in accordance with a standard network protocol

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Limerick, Ireland

Charles H Williams