The southern African distributor of Philips monitors and PCs, Siltek Distribution Dynamics (SDD), has announced true Plug-and-Play PC connectivity for Philips` range of 19 inch Brilliance monitors with the unique USBAY, which gives it future upgrade to full USB upgrade.According to Dereck Hindry, general manager at SDD, the USB connectivity turns `Plug-and-Pray` into true `Plug-and-Play` functionality. "It enables peripherals to be added to a PC via a simple connector and does away completely with user angst over opening the case to install accessories while eliminating the risks of misconnection," he says.He explains that decisions on IRQ settings, hardware interrupts and appropriate drivers are made by the PC, instead of by an often puzzled user. "For true Plug-and-Play, users must be able to add or remove devices at any time without powering down or rebooting the computer," he says.Hindry points out that, with their inherent requirement for accessibility, monitors provide perhaps the ideal location for a USB hub. "Brilliance monitor hubs will accommodate up to three USB-enabled peripherals which could be any three of a keyboard, mouse, scanner, printer, modem, video camera, printer or a set of digital speakers," he adds.One advantage of this approach is that monitor controls such as colour, brightness, contrast and balance can be adjusted from the keyboard via USB. "Which is precisely why we say Philips Brilliance monitors are `true` Plug-and-Play," says Hindry.He describes Philips as an undisputed industry leader in USB technology by virtue of the fact that it has developed generic, industry-wide standard USB drivers for monitors and digital speakers in alliance with the consortium of companies led by Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Compaq and Northern Telecom that created the standard."This is exemplified by the impressive list of USB firsts the company has amassed over the past 18 months," he continues. These include the first:* soft control for monitors over USB,* stand-alone USB hub,* working USB speakers,* USB audio playback,* USB monitor line,* commercially available USB transceiver ICs,* commercially available USB codex ICs; and* commercially available USB digital speakers for PCs.
Share
