FarSync K2Ee

The FarSync K2Ee card and software is designed to provide high performance hardware communications solutions for business, government and military requirements who require a low profile PCIe synchronous communications card with externally sourced line clocks or able to generate a wide range of clock speeds internally. The product includes a low level driver that allows access to the communications features available in the hardware.

The FarSync SDK provides a Developers Toolkit for the product.

The K2Ee is a PCIe communications card with two independently configurable sync serial ports. Sync operation supports transparent bitstream and bitsync (HDLC) of up to 10 Mbits/s per line with a total card bandwidth of 40 Mbits/s. The highly flexible universal network connector supports RS232, X.21, RS422, RS530, RS449, RS485 and V.35 network interfaces.

Line signalling modes: NRZ, Manchester encoding, FM0, FM1 and Conditioned Diphase (Differential Manchester) up to 10Mbits/s are handled by the FarSite customisable communications controller as well as soft selectable line termination resistance.

The transparent bitstream option available with the APIs is suitable for VoIP (as a subsystem), video and voice such as T-DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting), DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) ETI (Ensemble Transport Interface – ETSI EN 300 799).

Supplied with standard and low profile PCIe I/O brackets, the photo above shows the FarSync K2Ee fitted with the low profile PCIe I/O bracket and the one below with the standard I/O bracket.

The drivers supplied with Windows and Linux allow large numbers of ports to be supported by the installation of multiple FarSync K2Ee cards in a Server. Typically 12 or more cards (24+ ports) can be supported; the card limit is only dependent on the resources available in the host Server and the total bandwidth of the PCIe bus.

The product is supplied with a free 5 year warranty.

The FarSync K2Ee installs easily under Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Windows Server 2019, 2016 and 2012 on single- or multi-core systems under 32 or 64 bit. The K2Ee supports a Windows-based API, common to the entire range of FarSync cards/devices, it is referred to as the FarSync Windows API (FsWinAPI). This is an extension of the MS Win32 COMM API and enables, for example, applications developed to support COM ports, to be easily ported to use FarSync support in synchronous modes. This standardization enables the API to also be readily accessible from higher level environments such as .NET, C#, VB etc.

The FsWinAPI provides applications with direct access to the adapter’s communications port/s for bit sync (HDLC) framing, LAPB, V.120, ETI (NI, V.11) and also transparent bitstream operation for video and voice type applications.

The FarSync K2Ee can also be installed to appear as a NDIS (LAN) interface so it can simply use the TCP/IP stack over PPP to allow access to IP based networks such as the Internet.

LabVIEW applications can access this card.

The product is supplied with a comprehensive configuration utility. The lines can be reconfigured and restarted without reloading the software. There is context sensitive help and an on-line manual should it be required. An advanced tab permits users to further specify the configuration of the line if necessary.

The product is supplied with its own Line Monitor that allows the user to record, display and store line traffic with WAN protocol decoding for fast debugging.

The Char I/O API provides a programming language independent, high-level interface to the FarSync base driver it supports access to bit synchronous (HDLC) framed and transparent bitstream data.

The card can also use the TCP/IP stack to allow access to IP based networks such as the Internet. It also allows selection of the full range of clock modes.

The link level protocol used can be PPP, Cisco HDLC, LAPB (using hdlcX API) or Frame Relay with optional authentication by CHAP, MSCHAP or PAP (RFC 1334) thus providing a standard point-to-point network interface. ETI (NI, V.11) is supported with the FarSync SDK.

The card installs seamlessly as a plug and play device. The driver supports Linux kernel versions 2.6 and onwards including the leading distributions supplied by Red Hat, SuSE, CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Slackware and more. Multi-processor systems are supported. The driver is dynamically loadable so a kernel rebuild is not required for the driver to be installed. Driver source code is provided supporting both little endian and big endian memory storage formats.

FarSite is committed to supporting the cards on new versions of Linux and Linux kernels as they are released. The source code for the driver is supplied with the product allowing rebuilding by the end user for use with almost any of the current or future Linux variants. The driver supports both big-endian and little-endian memory storage formats.

A configuration utility is provided to set the line speed, interface type and protocol, after which the ports may be configured with standard networking tools.

The FarSync SDK provides a Developers Toolkit with full documentation, useful utilities, such as a line monitor, and many sample applications for Linux and Windows.

Free support from FarSite’s Engineering department is provided to customers purchasing the FarSync SDK who have technical questions using the API.

The FarSync K2Ee suits a wide range of different applications, these include:

• Low profile solution for synchronous ports
• High speed multi-port HDLC framing support for non standard or specialist protocols
• Multi purpose multi port communication card supplying a wide range of card generated clock speeds
• Line connection card for LabVIEW application
• Manchester Encoding and Conditioned Diphase for long, reliable, high speed self clocking lines
• Interfacing DAB ETI (Ensemble Transport Interface – ETSI EN 300 799) transparent bit streams to Servers
• Interfacing high speed MPEG Video bit streams T-DMB ETI to Servers
• Custom or unusual protocols using the FarSite customisable communications controller

The card comprises an AMD processor with no wait state SRAM. The whole memory space may be mapped via the PCIe interface to the PC/Server. The AMD processor contains a dual embedded HDLC / transparent controller with SDMA access (128 buffers per port) and a full range of timers. A FarSite communications controller (customisable).

The K2Ee supports two synchronous ports which can run to speeds of up to 10 Mbits/s full duplex internally clocked and 10 Mbits/s externally clocked. Total bandwidth supported by the card is 40 Mbits/s.

Network Interfaces

The multi function line drivers available on both ports support X.21 (V.11), V.35, RS232
(V.24), RS422, RS530, RS449, RS485, network interfaces, all soft configurable and ESD protected from static charges.

Internally Sourced Clocks

Internally generated clocks to drive a serial communications port can be derived from either an on-board 8.192MHz clock (25ppm) and can be set to hundreds of different frequencies between 100 baud and 10 Mbits/s, some of pre-programmed list is in the table below. Many other frequencies can be synthesized to order, contact us to discuss your requirements.

100, 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 7200, 8000, 9600, 12000, 14400, 16000, 16800, 19200, 21600, 24000, 26400, 28800, 31200, 32000, 33000, 33333, 33600, 36000, 38400,  40000, 40800, 43200, 48000, 56000, 64000, 80000, 96000, 112000, 128000, 160000, 192000, 224000, 256000, 320000, 384000, 448000, 512000, 576000, 640000, 704000, 768000, 832000, 896000, 960000, 1000000, 1024000, 1088000, 1152000, 1216000, 1280000, 1344000, 1408000, 1472000, 1536000, 1600000, 1664000, 1728000, 1792000, 1856000, 1920000, 1984000, 2000000, 2048000, 2112000, 2176000, 2240000, 2304000, 2368000, 2432000, 2496000, 2560000, 2624000, 2688000, 2752000, 2816000, 2880000, 2944000, 3000000, 3008000, 3072000, 3136000, 3200000, 3264000, 3328000, 3392000, 3456000, 3520000, 3584000, 3648000, 3712000, 3776000, 3840000, 3904000, 3968000, 4000000, 4032000, 4096000, 4160000, 4224000, 4288000, 4352000, 4416000, 4480000, 4544000, 4608000, 4672000, 4736000, 4800000, 4864000, 4928000, 4992000, 5000000, 5056000, 5120000, 5184000, 5248000, 5312000, 5376000, 5440000, 5504000, 5568000, 5632000, 5696000, 5760000, 5824000, 5888000, 5952000, 6000000, 6016000, 6080000, 6144000, 6208000, 6272000, 6336000, 6400000, 6464000, 6528000, 6553600, 6592000, 6656000, 6720000, 6784000, 6848000, 6912000, 6976000, 7000000, 7040000, 7104000, 7168000, 7232000, 7296000, 7360000, 7424000, 7488000, 7552000, 7616000, 7680000, 7744000, 7808000, 7872000, 7936000, 8000000, 8064000, 8128000, 8192000, 9000000, 10000000.

Line Signalling Modes

NRZ plus the self clocking (clock for the data is decoded from the incoming data line) line signalling modes Manchester Encoding, Conditioned Diphase (also known as Differential Manchester), FM0 and FM1 at speeds of up to 10 MBits/s. This means separate clock lines are not required, these line signalling modes are a soft configurable alternative to NRZ and a reliable way of handling long high speed cable runs.

Line termination is supported on all the balanced pair signals for X.21 (V.11), V.35, RS422, RS530 (EIA530), RS449 and RS485 operation. The line termination resistors may be soft selected to be selected on a port by port basis. The addition of line termination resistors helps improve signal quality on long high speed lines.

Terminal Timing

Terminal Timing is supported to enable system-wide clock synchronisation.

PCI Express Bus Specification

FarSync PCIe cards are suitable for systems with a PCIe bus, covering single and multi-processor systems. These cards are compliant with PCI Express Base specification revision 1.0a and above. The FarSync adapters are bus mastering, 1x (single lane) cards.

For Windows configuration is by a GUI application, a typical screen is shown below.

The line can be reconfigured and restarted without reloading the software.

There is context sensitive help and an on-line manual should it be required. An advanced tab permits users to further specify the configuration of the line if necessary.

For Linux a configuration utility is provided; alternatively text files can be used.

The software firmware, drivers, utilities are included with the FarSync adapter. Cables are ordered separately.

The software and documentation is downloaded from this website using a code supplied with the FarSync adapter, it includes:

• Drivers for Linux and Windows
• Source code for Linux drivers
• Network monitor and various useful utility programs

New releases of the software with enhancements and fixes are made available for free download from the Download page in the Support section of this web site.

The Developer’s Toolkit is ordered separately and supplied as a download

This two port adapter uses a single HD44F connector with the cable splitting out to two connectors. Two port cables are available for RS232, RS530, V.35, X.21 and RS449 operation. Details of the standard cables and DTE to DCE conversion cables available are listed below.