Description
The 6DS1300-8AB is a Siemens SICOMP MKI (Monitor/Keyboard Interface) module, part of the SICOMP industrial PC family that powered countless control-room operator stations throughout the 1990s and 2000s. It slots into a SICOMP PCA 500 / PCA 700 rack and bridges the proprietary SICOMP backplane to standard external peripherals — one VGA video output (DB15) and PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse — allowing a SICOMP-based SIMATIC PCS 7 OS or WinCC workstation to drive a COTS monitor and keyboard instead of a Siemens proprietary terminal. Although the SICOMP line has long been superseded by SIMATIC Rack PCs, the 6DS1300-8AB remains an essential spare for plants that have not yet migrated their control-room hardware.
Application Scenarios
In a Central European district-heating power plant, the PCS 7 OS client in the main control room still runs on a SICOMP PCA 700 rack commissioned in 2003 — Windows XP Embedded, WinCC V6.2, connected to a redundant S7-416-5H via Industrial Ethernet. The operator desk has a 17″ LCD and a mechanical PS/2 keyboard plugged into the 6DS1300-8AB at the rear of the SICOMP rack. When the original MKI module began dropping the mouse port (classic capacitor drift on the PS/2 PHY after 18 years), the OS stayed alive but the mouse cursor froze intermittently — annoying during alarm acknowledgment. The I&C lead sourced a refurbished 6DS1300-8AB, powered the SICOMP rack down for the only time that quarter, swapped the single-width Eurocard, and rebooted. Ten minutes later the mouse was back, the OS session restored from the PCS 7 server, and the desk was live again without reinstalling a thing — because the 6DS1300-8AB carries no OS image, just the PHY bridge. For control rooms sitting on SICOMP iron, the MKI is the invisible link between “the rack works” and “the operator can see and type.”
Parameter
| Main Parameters | Value/Description |
|---|---|
| Product Model | 6DS1300-8AB |
| Manufacturer | Siemens (SICOMP industrial PC family) |
| Product Category | Monitor/Keyboard Interface Module (MKI) |
| Video Output | 1 × VGA (DB15 female), up to 1024 × 768 @ 75 Hz |
| Keyboard Port | 1 × PS/2 (mini-DIN 6-pin) |
| Mouse Port | 1 × PS/2 (mini-DIN 6-pin) |
| Backplane Bus | SICOMP proprietary (connects to SICOMP CPU graphics/KB controller) |
| Supply Voltage | +5 V DC (from SICOMP rack backplane) |
| Power Dissipation | ~2 W typical |
| Mounting | SICOMP rack single-slot Eurocard (PCA 500 / PCA 700) |
| Dimensions (approx.) | 100 × 160 mm (single-width) |
| Operating Temp | 0 … +55 °C |
| Compatible Racks | SICOMP PCA 500, PCA 700, MCI-series |
Technical Principles and Innovative Values
Innovation Point 1: COTS-Peripheral Bridge in a Proprietary Rack. The 6DS1300-8AB solves a specific SICOMP-era pain point: the SICOMP CPU board routes graphics and keyboard controller traffic over the internal backplane, but the front/rear of the rack has no VGA or PS/2 cutouts. The MKI picks up that traffic on the backplane connector and breaks it out to standard DB15 + mini-DIN sockets at the rack rear. This let plants ditch Siemens proprietary “operator terminals” (expensive, low-res, hard-to-source) and run a normal 17″ CRT/LCD and a clicky PS/2 keyboard — a huge ergonomics leap in the early 2000s.
Innovation Point 2: Passive, Zero-Config Replacement. The 6DS1300-8AB carries no firmware that the OS depends on — it’s essentially a PHY-level passthrough with buffering. Swap a failed unit for a fresh 6DS1300-8AB, reboot the SICOMP, and the OS (Windows NT/XP + WinCC/PCS 7) rediscovers VGA + PS/2 exactly as before. No driver reload, no license reassignment, no project download — which is why a failed MKI is one of the fastest “control room recoveries” in the SICOMP playbook.
Innovation Point 3: Single-Slot Economy in a Dense Rack. At one Eurocard width (~20 mm), the 6DS1300-8AB occupies minimal SICOMP backplane real estate — important in a PCA 700 where you might already have CPU, COM modules, fieldbus couplers, and power supply fighting for slots. One MKI covers VGA + keyboard + mouse for the whole operator desk.
Application Cases and Industry Value
A paper-mill DCS upgrade in Scandinavia kept its SICOMP PCA 700 racks as PCS 7 OS clients through a phased migration — the plan was “keep the SICOMP desks alive until the new SIMATIC IPC 827B boxes arrive next outage.” Six months into the wait, three 6DS1300-8AB modules across two control rooms began showing snow on the VGA output (capacitor leakage on the video PHY, classic for 15+ year-old SICOMP peripherals). The mill’s I&C team sourced three refurbished 6DS1300-8AB units, swapped them during a weekend paper-grade change, and the operators were back on crisp 1024×768 by Monday shift. The plant estimated that keeping the SICOMP+MKI combo running for those extra 8 months deferred ~€45 K per OS client in premature IPC replacement — and avoided a WinCC project re-host onto new hardware under time pressure. The 6DS1300-8AB effectively bought the migration team the breathing room they needed.
