ACCESS bus

     A recent offspring of the I²C BUS is the ACCESS Bus. This bus was
     developed by Philips,Signetics,Digital and Intel.The goal was to
     create a bus that could help us getting rid of all cabling involved
     with computer peripherals. You would have 1 bus connector where you
     could hook up your keyboard,mouse,digitizer,scanner,printer,monitor
     etc.

     Then by using software you could issue commands to your monitor or
     printer.Things like selecting fonts or programming brightness and
     picture size could be done from within software on the host platform.

     Things like Hotplugging are included in the standard.There has been
     a chip developed that could replace the standard 8042 (which is the
     keyboard controller in an IBM PC) by an access bus controller.
     Digital is using the bus in its Alpha based machines. Sony and some
     other manufacturers have monitors that support the remote programming
     features.Microsoft will support the bus fully .
     (probably already in Windows 95).

     Basically the hardware layer of the access bus is an I²C bus.
     All that has been done is implementing a software protocol to
     provide additional functionality to the system.


     You can contact Sharon Baker at Signetics (408) 991-3518.
     for further information

     A company called Computer Access technology provides
     plug in boards for IBM-PC that give your system ACCESS bus features.

     Note that the address has changed since the FIRST FAQ issue.

     Computer Access Technology  ( CATC )
     3375 Scott Blvd.
     Suite #410
     Santa Clara CA 95054

     Phone  +1-408-727-6600
     Fax    +1-408-727-6622

     e-mail catc@netcom.com