High-end KVM switching system

A switching system for interconnecting a plurality of computer user terminals, having user interface devices including a keyboard, a video display unit and a cursor control device, 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 or a single terminal, comprising:

• a switching hub for routing keyboard and cursor control signals transmitted from any one of the terminals to a selected computer, and for routing video signals received from the said computer to said one of the terminals, said signals being in both digital and analogue form;
• a user interface module for receiving said transmitted keyboard and cursor control signals, coupled between said plurality of computer user terminals and said switching hub;
• a computer interface module for receiving said received video signals, coupled between said plurality of computers and said switching hub;
• wherein the switching hub comprises a plurality of removable and hot swappable switch modules each with its own crosspoint switching arrangement and central processing unit, each module comprising an analogue transmitter circuit and/or an analogue receiver circuit, a programmable digital circuit for handling digital data signals, and a backplane interface between the said analogue and digital circuits.

A switching system for interconnecting a plurality of computer user terminals, having user interface devices including a keyboard, a video display unit and a cursor control device, 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 or a single terminal, comprising:

• a switching hub for routing keyboard and cursor control signals transmitted from any one of the terminals to a selected computer, and for routing video signals received from the said computer to said one of the terminals, said signals being in both digital and analogue form,
• a user interface module for receiving said transmitted keyboard and cursor control signals, coupled between said plurality of computer user terminals and said switching hub,
• a computer interface module for receiving video signals, coupled between said plurality of computers and said switching hub,
• wherein the switching hub is a module system comprising a plurality of switch modules, each module comprising a separate analogue transmitter circuit or an analogue receiver circuit, each including an analogue crosspoint switching arrangement, a separate programmable digital circuit for handling digital data signals and including a digital crosspoint switching arrangement, and a backplane interface between the said analogue and digital circuits, said analogue circuit embodying stripline structures for video bus channel paths.