The first KVMs to hit the market with DVI support come from Aten. Both models in its Masterview Series, the CS-1762 and the CS-1764, are built around the same enclosure that this vendor has used for some time now. These small metal cases are adequate at handling all the necessary cables, even for the four-port versions. But their weight (around two pounds) barely suffices to anchor them against the pull of all the cables they can accommodate. Buttons on the front of the box handle switching among PCs, while the connections for the console peripherals and matching client devices link up to the back. The compact CS-1762 places its USB connectors for the mouse and keyboard on the front side as well, mostly to save space; the CS-1764 provides those ports on the back instead. Both KVMs have two additional USB ports that can link up to a client PC. This means, for example, that when a USB printer or scanner from one client is attached to the KVM, those devices become available to other clients as they're selected for use. These USB ports can also accommodate external USB 2.0 disk drives as well.

And now, a KVM with DVI support

The keyboard can also control the KVM. A series of hotkey sequences provides multiple ways to change the KVM focus, and even permits the KVM focus to change separately from an audio or USB focus. Hotkey assignments are flexible, and may even be managed by editing a special plain-text configuration file.

Specific button combinations on the KVM also provide sophisticated controls, and permit all signal sources or only individual signal sources to be manipulated. Thus, for example, you could use one computer to surf the Web and write letters, while listening to music on a second computer, or waiting for a notification beep from a third computer to let you know it has finished burning a CD or DVD (an audible signal on its audio channel would let you know when the work is done). And while all this is going on, you could even play a game, or take work on yet another client PC.