Cogent has reached an agreement with Nissin Systems Co. Ltd of Kyoto, Japan to distribute the OPC DataHub in Japan and other Asian markets. Nissin has developed software links from the LANTRONIX XPort and other embedded devices to the OPC DataHub, allowing users to connect serial hardware to a wide range of Windows applications, and share data with them in real time.

"This hardware/software combination opens a new field of possibilities for our customers," said Mr. Shuichi Kitaura, Network Solution Business Unit General Manager for Nissin. "Our agreement with Cogent will allow us to continue providing enhanced value for embedded-systems data communication."

Among the various OPC tunneling products on the market, the OPC DataHub is the only one that gives you so much flexibility on what kind of data you send and receive. In addition to tunneling data from OPC servers to OPC clients, you can choose virtually any data source: database, spreadsheet, web-based input, custom programs, even system performance data from mission critical computers in remote locations.

The data from all these sources can be aggregated any way you like, and sent through the tunnel. At the other end, you have the same flexibility: you can put any mix of the data into whatever process or program is attached to the OPC DataHub. Put simply: any data source can be tunneled across the network to any data user.

The final release of version 6.4 of the OPC DataHub is now available for download. This release, 6.4.11, has several improvements in existing features: OPC server connections, ODBC database connections, and Gamma scripts. Future releases of the OPC DataHub will introduce new capabilities, soon to be announced.