AdderLink X-DVI KVM sends DVI / USB over single CAT6 cable
By Darren Murph 
posted June 16th 2008 6:41PM
posted June 16th 2008 6:41PM
Apologies for the onslaught of acronyms up there, but here's the skinny: Adder has just loosed its AdderLink X-DVI, which claims to be the "world's first extender to send both USB and DVI signals over the same CAT6 cable." Reportedly, the KVM supports the extension of USB keyboards / mice and high-definition video over distances up to 165-feet, and just in case any updates make their way down in the future, the unit is "fully flash upgradeable." There's nary a mention of price, but it should be available through various worldwide distribution partners this fall.
since when could you put HD signals on the same cable as with Mice and Keyboards? is there an LCD screen on the Keyboard?
anywho this is gonna cost a fortune for something many dont need
for those who use DVI they prooly dont need 165ft and many people who would ever need 165ft have switched over to HDMI by now
as more and more monitors get HDMI inputs, this cable is going to be more and more useless
I dont see DVI technology advancing as much as HDMI, so only a 165ft HDMI cable would impress me
especially cause you would need 2 or 3 amplifyers to keep the signal strong over 165ft
This is geared more towards people with a lot of computers or a rack of servers. Although servers don't have DVI though.
KVM being keyboard, video, mouse, combining all those into a single CAT6 is pretty cool. Most all businesses have infrastructure that can handle that. This also allows you to firewall off console access to servers.
Home theater application would be cool too.
You do realize HDMI is the same as DVI. They just added some wires for sound and made a different connector.
didn't they also add a bunch of DRM crap to it?
@ John: Isnt that just HDCP?
That's fine but HDMI is some extra decoding issues because there is DRM code and license issues to get around. There are also already some HDMI long range solutions on the market, in particular via wireless.
This application is strictly focused on PC systems and monitors and HDMI is not dominant here.
I think it was HDCP. I just try to avoid HDMI like the plague in preference of DVI because there's something about controlling where I can display my video that really pisses me off.
John, you do realise that DVI uses HDCP these days as well, right?
How would this allow you to firewall console access to servers? I get the impression that this just uses the cable, not ethernet.
I think what they are doing is really cool... I saw it at Infocom and there is no delay or drop in color depth of the image! I was seriously impressed. I think they are using some kinda 10 gig stuff to make it work, it's not the sort of thing you would put on your LAN but as a point to point DVI extender it is excellent. I some for my studio, the only down side is that it's single link only, so I would need 2 for each of my monitors. Way better than the gefen thing
In order for this product to have a good market impact it has to price competitively against the Nano and Atom style platforms for remote installation purposes. This means about less than $250.00
For remote admins and data centers Geffen has offered solutions for some time and most admins are not that concerned about USB.
That was one of the most interesting articles I've ever read...
It's amazing to me that while vendors continue to pump ideas like this into the KVM market that nobody releases a console in a laptop form factor... clamshell, trackpad, keyboard, audio, USB over a cat5/6 cable or two
It would be nice to pack away the noisy SLI behemoth and sit on a chair in the living room.
This might make for some epic VNC.
This has great applications in presentation technology settings. For example, In a large lecture theatre with a computer connected to a projector you would need something like 165 feet. Running DVI over fiber is costly (or the two cat5/6 cables it would take with present DVI-cat5/6 baluns), tack on the extra cat 5/5e/6 cables you'd need using current market devices (2 cables per set of USB baluns) and the cost multiplies. This solution let's you run one cat 6 cable, reducing the costs from running multiple drops to one cable. This is huge. It's much cheaper to install cat6 vs. fiber and most techs know how to install it. I'd wonder if it's dual or single link and if the product is IP-based.
The real question is whether or not they're having to compress the signal in some way in order to pump it through a CAT6 cable.
Intel recently showed that Cat6 can handle a 10gbit connection over 180 feet and over 328feet on Cat6a. DVI uses 1.65gbit and usb2 uses 0.480 gbit. They could even have fit in ESata which can operate at 1.5Gbit or 3Gbit. Now that would have made for a real sweet unit
This is really cool, I've been look for this kind of solution for some time - I can now shove my noisy games machine into a 3U case in my rack in the attic and pump out the video/usb data to something like this: http://www.datapro.net/products/custom-wall-plates.html
I doubt it would be IP based. It probably uses Cat6 (readily available cable guaranteed for up to 250MHz operation) for a point to point connection. I don't know if the cable needs to follow any cabling standards either such as those imposed for etnernet.
On a side note. This device and many just like (including those that use fibre optic) probably prefer DVI over HDMI for 2 reasons. a) DVI is almost interchangeable with HDMI excpetion on audio. and b) HDCP is NOT a requirement for DVI interfaces. HDCP is a liscence protocol meaning that each implementation of HDCP earns intel a little more money, something customers should have the end decision in making.