PowerFax M-4 Analog Fax Board

Specifications

The PowerFax M-4, an 4-line analog intelligent fax board from Commetrex employs the latest in DSP technology to significantly reduce the cost of a medium-density PC-based fax board. The M-4, and its sister products, the M-8, the M-T1 and the M-E1, redefine the economics of fax servers of all types. 

Although they are priced at approximately thirty percent less than competitive products they offer world-class, market-proven performance. The M-4 developer's software is available for the Windows NT operating system.

The M-Series offers the only fully automated GUI-based installation and configuration process for an intelligent fax board. The install procedure offers all of the choices the fax expert needs in an easy-to-use process designed for the non-technical user. 

For those wishing to use the M-4 with a commercially available fax system, it is supported by a growing number of M-Series-Compatible Fax Software Systems. 

The M-4 is designed to simplify application development. It includes, in addition to fax send and receive, file-format conversion, document-queue management, and fax-status functions. And the M-Series Fax Description Language (M-Series FDL) supports the dynamic assembly of a fax from multiple elements, such as graphics and text.

Features

• Medium density-4 lines per board
• 14.4 Kbps send/receive
• Turnaround polling
• Dynamic document re-sizing and re-encoding
• Support for OS/2 and Windows NT
• DSP-based fax software
• No-charge software upgrades
• M-Series Fax Description Language
• Comprehensive API and developer's kit
• C-language demo programs
• Highest-productivity development environment
• Unlimited technical support

Benefits

• Economical, medium-density systems
• Software-defined functionality offers the ultimate in system configurability.
• Reduced system size and cost
• Up-to-date fax-resource software at no additional cost
• On-the-fly creation of fax text and documents
• Turnaround polling with document ID simplifies fax-on-demand systems
• Comprehensive technical support and demo programs speed system development

Overview
The M-4 multiline fax system combines Windows NT APIs with the M-Series modems and any combination of 4 loop-start or DID trunk interfaces on a single, long ISA slot PC add-in board. The M-4 board includes an "enhanced-compliant" MVIP switch to support advanced applications that require inter-board connection and switching. The M-4 includes a powerful, '386-class control processor and a large DRAM to dramatically reduce host-PC overhead. The fax modems are implemented on open-architecture Texas Instruments DSPs, allowing simple software upgrades to take advantage of the latest software releases.

Commetrex' MultiFax, the M-4's technology foundation and field proven since mid-1993 as an OEM software product, is being used by over 100 fax-system developers in Asia, North America, and Europe. It is being used in the most demanding applications to send and receive hundreds of thousands of faxes a day.

But the M-4 is not just a proven multiline fax board. It's a comprehensive developer's system which supports the rapid development of high-function fax systems of all types. With its exclusive Fax Description Language (FDL), the M-Series developer can easily implement information-service platforms which create ad hoc fax images from disparate elements such as text and graphical objects.

The M-Series has the highest fax-machine connection rate in the industry since it can dynamically re-size and re-encode fax images to suit the capabilities of the receiving terminal. This means a B4 M-Series image can be dynamically converted to A4 size should the receiving terminal not support B4. Similarly, MR-encoded images will be dynamically converted to MH should the receiving terminal not support MR.

Installation and Configuration Package
The M-Series's easy-to-use graphical installation and configuration process finds and verifies the M-Series boards installed in the system and guides the user through the set-up process. This automated installation procedure makes the M-Series ideal for applications, such as fax servers, where the installer is often an untrained reseller or end user. The installation package is designed to dramatically reduce the support costs associated with broad market distribution.

Applications
The PowerFax M-Series offers the lowest-cost medium-density PC-based multiline fax platform available. It is suitable for information service systems, fax-server, fax-mail and fax store-and-forward applications from high-volume fax broadcast systems to enterprise-wide LAN fax servers and SOHO integrated voice/fax systems.

The M-Series is also well suited for fax broadcast and LAN-based fax server systems. Its market-proven technology, high density, and low cost per port make it an exceptional choice for supporting high-volume commercial fax systems as well as corporate fax servers.

System Environment
There are three main data structures in M-Series: M-Series Document Queues (MDQs), Fax Status structures, and M-Series System Parameters. MDQs, which are managed with 7 M-Series functions, contain documents to be sent and received. 

This permits documents to be easily assembled independently of the fax application, strongly supporting client/server architectures. The Fax Status structures reflect the status of the current fax operation, including such indications as current page, current document, fax negotiation results, transfer rate, resolution, encoding, and error codes. System parameters hold information such as the default values for subscriber ID, country code, and manufacturer ID.

Development Productivity
The M-4 provides you with the most productive development environment available for fax applications. The M-4's API gives you queue-management, status, send, and receive functions, plus the functions for call-control and parameter-management. The PowerFax M-Series Developer's Kit includes source code for sample applications and several utilities to aid your development process.

M-Series FDL
M-Series Fax Description Language (M-Series FDL) macros support the creation of faxes from dynamically assembled elements. For example, a personalized fax letter including information obtained from a centralized database, a pre-scanned signature, the date, time, and even a per-call personalized paragraph, can be created and transmitted in seconds. 

Examples of FDL macros are:

• @CONVERT:END
• @CONVERT:PADTOEND
• @CONVERT:FILE
• @CONVERT:PAGEBREAK
• @CONVERT:FONT
• @CONVERT:PAGESIZE
• @CONVERT:MARGIN
• @CONVERT:TEXT

These macros are inserted into a text file and converted using the M-Series file- and format-conversion functions. The resulting file is then placed in the appropriate MDQ.

Format Conversions
The files produced by word processing, page layout, and graphics packages are generally not in the file format a fax transmits and receives. M-Series supports conversions from FDL, PCX, Bi-Level TIFF, TIFF-F, and text (including OS/2 and Windows NT outline fonts). Additionally, for OS/2 systems Commetrex offers the PowerFax Enhanced Printer Driver which will create fax-ready files (TIFF-F) by printing directly from an OS/2 application.

M-Series API Functions

• MFCPlaceCall
• MFCSetDocHeader
• MFCAnswerCall
• MFCGetDocStatus
• MFCAnswerFaxPoll
• MFCGetSessionStatus
• MFCSendFax
• MFCGetVersionInfo
• MFCCancelFax
• MFCCheckTIFF
• MFCOpenConvert
• MFCCreateQueue
• MFCFaxConvertDirect
• MFCQueueDoc
• MFCEndConvert
• MFCQueueFree
• MFCReceiveFax
• MFCReleaseCall
• MFCGetDigit
• MFCGetParms
• MFCStartDTMFDetector
• MFCResetSendQueue
• MFCGetConvertedPages
• MFCSetPageSize
• MFCMergeFile
• MFCSplitFile

Developer Support
The M-4 includes unlimited technical support. And at Commetrex this is top-level support. Our support engineers are development engineers themselves, experienced in developing in-house applications using the same Commetrex products our customers use. They are experts in not only the specifics of M-Series, but with the computer, telephony, and fax environments as well.

Additional Specifications

• HOST REQUIREMENTS: 386/486/Pentium PC-AT with OS/2 or Windows NT
  
  
• BOARD WARRANTY: 7-year hardware warranty
  
  
• TELEPHONE INTERFACE 
  • Line Interface: Loop Start (optional DID)
  • Connector: 2 RJ-48
  • Impedance: 600 Ohms nominal
  • Ring Detection: Min. Threshold 40 Vrms 17-33 Hz
  • Loop Current Range: 18-70 mA
    
    
• TONE DIALING 
  • DTMF Digits: 0-9, *,# and ABCD per ITU-T Q.23 and Q.24
  • Rate: Programmable (10 digits/sec nominal) Wait-for-dial-tone capability
  • Dialing Parameters: Software controllable
  • Dialing Amplitude: Network compatible (configurable by country) programmable range -33 dBm to 1 dBm
    
    
• PULSE DIALING 
  • 10 Digits: 0-9
  • Pulsing Rate: 10 pulses/sec (nominal)
  • Make/Break Ratio: Network compatible (configurable by country) 40/60 nominal
    
    
• DTMF TONE DETECTION 
  • DTMF Digits: 0-9, *, #, ABCD
  • Dynamic Range: -47 dBm to 0 dBm per tone, programmable
  • Tone Duration: 40 ms (minimum)
  • Acceptable Twist: 10 db
  • Talk-off: Exceeds all Q.24 standards including Mitel CM 7291 and Bellcore TR-TSY-000762 tests
    
    
• MVIP-COMPLIANT INTERFACE 
  • Compatible with any MVIP-compliant telephony interface
    Enhanced-compliant switching access to any of the 512 MVIP time slots
    
    
• REGULATORY CERTIFICATION (USA AND CANADA) 
  • Telephone Network: FCC Part 68 and DOC CS-03
  • EMI: FCC Part 15 Subpart J, Class A
     

PowerFax M-Series products may be purchased directly from Commetrex as well as through several of our fax software partners and their VARs. For purchasing information or to place an order please e-mail Commetrex Sales or call Commetrex at 770-449-7775 or fax us at 770-242-7353.

For additional information about this or any other Commetrex product or technology please call Commetrex Marketing at (770) 449-7775 or send e-mail to Commetrex Marketing. 
 

Commetrex, MultiFax, PowerFax M-Series, M-Series, M-4, M-8, M-E1, and M-T1 are trade marks of Commetrex Corporation. PowerFax is a registered trademark of Commetrex Corporation. Windows NT is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders. specifications subject to change without notice.
 
 

Downloads:

This PowerFax M-4 Product Bulletin

The PowerFax M-Series Installation Manual

The PowerFax M-Series C-Level Developer's Manual

To download the free Acrobat^tm Reader from Adobe