Integration of digital devices on the shop or warehouse floor has always been a bit of a good news/bad news story. Either a costly PC server is used or a hub connector with minimal functionality beyond its basic purpose.

Now, Lee Stagni, president and COO of Comtrol (www.comtrol.com), says his company is changing that paradigm with the introduction of DeviceMaster Real Time Server. The embedded microcomputer is designed to network-enable digital devices as it runs application software. It can be programmed for data protocol conversion as well as data routing, validation, tagging, and logging.

Cost of ownership of the embedded, solid-state computer is lower than for traditional servers, says Brad Beale, general manager of the Industrial Applications Division at Comtrol. Because application software runs on the thin server, more expensive general-purpose servers are removed from the system.

Furthermore, the ability of DeviceMaster to be accessed and managed over the Internet dispenses with the need to have support technicians work on the server on-site.