Every other KVM company picked a lane. Adder went to broadcast, Raritan to the data centre, Avocent to secure government desks.
ATEN did not pick. It sells a two port cable switch you can put between a laptop and a desktop, and it sells a 40 port multi-interface IP KVM for a rack, and roughly sixty things in between. We track 73 ATEN KVM products, more than the other three brands put together.
That range is the story.
1979, Taipei
ATEN International was founded in 1979 by Shang-Chung Chen, with its first products reaching the market in 1981. Chen is still Chairman and President. The company is headquartered in the Xizhi District of New Taipei, Taiwan.
It is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under 6277, and as far as the public record goes it is the only listed KVM manufacturer in the world. Everyone else is either private, like Adder, or a division inside a larger group, like Raritan inside Legrand and Avocent inside Vertiv.
One small inconsistency worth noting if you go looking: the public record gives both 1999 and 2003 for when ATEN went public, describing 1999 as becoming a public company and 2003 as the listing. We have not been able to resolve which event each date refers to.
The international build-out came steadily: a US subsidiary in 1996, Belgium in 2000, Japan 2004, the UK 2006, South Korea and China 2007, Australia 2015, with R&D centres in Taiwan, China and Canada from 1998 and factories in Taiwan and China from 2008. By 2014 it was running NT$4,898 million in revenue with 1,631 employees, and by July 2015 it held 466 approved global patents.
It also owns IOGEAR
This is the fact most buyers do not know. ATEN established IOGEAR in 1999 as a US focused consumer electronics and IT subsidiary, and IOGEAR remains an ATEN subsidiary.
We carry both as separate brands, 73 products under ATEN and 41 under IOGEAR, because that is how they are sold and supported. But if you are cross-shopping an ATEN switch against an IOGEAR one and thinking of it as comparing two companies, you are not. You are comparing two product lines from the same parent, positioned at different retail channels.
The range, from cheap to serious
Worth walking through, because ATEN's model numbers are famously unhelpful and the span is wide enough that two products can share a prefix and be nothing alike.
Cable KVMs. The entry point. Built into the cable, no separate box, no power supply. The CS22U and CS62A do two computers over VGA, the CS64U does four, and the CS692 is the HDMI version. These are the ones that actually suit a desk.
Desktop KVMP switches. The P is for peripheral, meaning a USB hub is built in so your keyboard, mouse, webcam and dongles follow the switch. The 4K generation is where most buyers land: CS1822 and CS1824 for HDMI at 4K60, CS1922 and CS1924A for DisplayPort. Multi-monitor versions exist too, including the dual display CS1944DP and the triple display CS1964.
Secure NIAP certified. A completely separate line for government and defence. The CS1142DP4, CS1144DP4 and CS1148DP4 cover two, four and eight ports at 4K, and the CS1188DP4C adds a smart card reader. Same job as the certified ranges from Adder and Vertiv.
Rack and LCD console. The CL5808N and CL5816N fold a 19 inch screen, keyboard and trackpad into a 1U drawer, so a rack does not need a monitor on a trolley.
Enterprise KVM over IP. The top end. KN1132V at 32 ports, KN4124VA at 24 with four user channels, KN4140VA at 40. The KX9970T and KX9970R transmitter and receiver pair push 5K DisplayPort over IP, with fibre variants.
How to read an ATEN model number
Not a complete system, but these rules cover most of the catalog and save a lot of confusion.
- CS is a desktop or cable switch. KN, KH and KL are rack and enterprise. KL specifically means an LCD console is built in. CL is an LCD console drawer. KX is the high end IP extender line.
- In the CS1xyz range, the last digit is usually the port count. CS1822 is two port, CS1824 is four.
- A trailing M often means MST or multi-display, as on the CS1922M. A trailing C often means a smart card reader.
- DP4 in a secure model name signals the NIAP certified DisplayPort line.
None of this is guaranteed across generations. Always check the actual specification rather than inferring from the name.
Which one should you actually buy
Just switching two computers on one screen. A cable KVM. The CS22U or CS692 depending on whether you need VGA or HDMI. Done.
Two computers, nice monitor, you care about refresh rate. A 4K KVMP from the CS18xx or CS19xx families, and check the refresh rate specification carefully. Our guide on whether KVM switches support 144Hz explains why this trips people up, because plenty of 4K rated switches cap out well below what a gaming monitor can do.
Two monitors. The dual display models, and read dual monitor KVM switches first, because this is where most buyers pick the wrong product.
A rack at home. An older KH or KN unit from the secondary market, with the same warnings that apply to used Raritan and Avocent gear: check whether the remote client is Java based before you buy.
For the wider comparison across brands, the best KVM switches covers the field.
The honest assessment
ATEN's strength and weakness are the same thing. The range is enormous, so there is almost certainly a product that fits your exact requirement, and finding it is genuinely hard. The model numbering actively works against you, the product pages are dense, and two switches that look identical in a listing can differ on the one specification you care about.
If you know precisely what you need, ATEN probably makes it. If you are browsing, you will have a better time starting from a guide than from their catalog.
Where the information here came from
Founding, listing, subsidiary and patent details are from the public record as summarised on Wikipedia, including the 2014 financial and headcount figures and the IOGEAR relationship. Product specifications are from our own catalog entries, built from manufacturer documentation.
We have no commercial relationship with ATEN or IOGEAR.