Rear view of e-TwinST@r Controller with RJ45 unit attached

The e-Twinax Controller now has an optional model that includes a built-in unit featuring 8 (or 16) RJ45 sockets. Twinax devices working over CAT5 lines are connected directly to the Controller, saving the cost of an active star hub and eliminating the need for power sources and additional space in the communications closet, as well as the extra set-up and maintenance time.  The RJ45 Ports of this option operate just as a Twinax port with an RJ45 Balun attached to it.

If you need to connect more Twinax Devices than the number of physical ports on an e-Twinax Controller, please read the explanation in the next section.  The e-Twinax Controller model must be able to support the number of devices you need to connect.

Explanation of Device Support 
for the Twinax and RJ45 Ports of e-Twinax Controller

As with the standard AS/400 8-port "Twinax Brick" from the Twinax Workstation Controller, each Host Port (Twinax or RJ45) of the e-Twinax will support up to a maximum number  of 7 device addresses (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), up to the maximum number of devices the particular model controller will support.  This convention holds true to all Twinax or RJ45 Host Ports of S/36, S/38, AS/400, iSeries and all IBM, Decision Data, I-O, Idea, and Perle Remote Controllers except for the very old 5251-12 and 5294 controllers that only supported a maximum of 4 addresses per Host Port.

For example, an IBM 5394-01B Controller has three Twinax Host Ports.  Three ports with 7 devices each would total 21.  The 5394-01B only supports 16.  You can distribute those 16 device addresses across those three ports however you see fit.  That could be 7 on the first port, 7 on the second port and 2 on the third port.  You could also have 6, 6 and 4 or any other combination that totals 16 device addresses with a maximum of 7 on any one port.

Another example is the 4616 (Twinax Host Ports) and 4816 (RJ45 Host Ports) of the e-Twinax Controllers.  Both of these models will support 16 Twinax addresses/devices but only have 8 physical ports.  Using the same logic as with the 5394-01B example, you can connect devices to ANY of these 8 ports as long as the total number of addresses used is 16 or less.  For example you could use the same 7, 7, and 2 on the first three Host Ports as with the 5394.  Being these models have 8 Host Ports, you could also put 2 devices on each port for a total of 16.  You could also have 4, 4, 4 and 4 on four of the 8 Host Ports or any other combination that totals 16 device addresses with a maximum of 7 on any one of the 8 ports.

If you need to connect more physical devices than the number of ports you have two options.

First, you can "cable-through" your Twinax devices from one to the next using actual Twinax cables.  Using this method you can connect up to 7 devices to a single Host Port.  If you are using multiple session terminals, the number of physical devices would be less as each Host Port will only support 7 addresses. 

Second, you can add a Twinax-to-RJ45 Active Star Hub such as the Gemini Express Active Star Hub to your setup.  These Active Star Hubs connect to one of the controllers Host Ports either by Twinax Cable or Category 5 (CAT5) cable, and expand the single port to 7 RJ45 ports corresponding with the device addresses available on that port of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.  This is the same whether the e-Twinax Controller has Twinax Host Ports or RJ45 Host Ports.  In this implementation each Twinax Device would be required to have a Twinax-to-RJ45 Balun on it to allow connection with a CAT5 cable.