This installation included three ESI machines (Dynamotion) , a brand new CAM department, and Windows 2000 throughout the entire facility. The drills and routers could have just as easily been Hitachi, Pluritec, or Excellon. The two alternative illustrate the two fundamentally different ways to connect printed circuit board drills and routers to a file server. 

The first alternative (recommended) uses a PC running our Graphical Drill/Route System 7 at each machine.  The full power of a real network and modern computer graphics are available to enhance the capability both the machine and the operator. No modifications are required in the machines.

The second alternative (very limited) uses serial connections between the Drill Room File Server and the machines.  Each machine is plugged into a separate COM port on the back of the File Server computer. Normally the machines must be setup to download files using DNC 1.3. This often requires installing additional hardware and software in each drill and router.

The basic problem with the second alternative is that nothing else can be done except to send a drill or route program over a wire to a machine. There is no improvement in the capability of the machine and little or no improvement in the productivity of the operator.  This archaic technique has been abandon in most other industries.  Only in printed circuit board manufacturing can we still buy new machines which can't connect to your network but do offer DNC capability - as an extra cost option.