Retail POS terminals at sales counters such as those in grocery stores are comprised of multiple serial peripherals including card readers, coupon printers, keypads, scales, cash drawers, bar code scanners, and display screens, to name just a few. All these peripherals require connection to a back-office server. An Ethernet connection is an ideal choice as it permits an unlimited number of stations to be connected over large distances via a single port on a server. Using RS-232, up to 8 devices can be connected via a single SDS. And, when using RS-422/485 serial ports, up to 10 (RS-422) or 32 (RS-485) individual devices can be attached to each port. Meaning that a single Eight port RS-422/485 Serial Device Server can connect up to 256 individual POS peripherals--more than enough for your average register bank. (Quatech will be releasing RS-422/485 enabled serial device servers later this year.) And, not only can all these devices be connected, they can be remotely monitored and controlled from any other computer on the network (whether around the corner or around the world) via a simple Internet or Intranet connection.