The Intermec 9161 port concentrator handles bidirectional data traffic between networked Intermec readers or printers and a host computer. Data is transmitted between the 9161 and the host using either asynchronous or IBM bisynchronous communications protocols. The 9161 comes in two versions; The 9161-01 port concentrator has 16 point-to-point circuits for readerprinters and the 9161-02 multipoint concentrator can support up to 12 point-to-point circuits and 4 multipoint (multidrop) circuits (140 total devices).Each multi-drop port can handle up to 32 Intermec multi-drop compatible readers andor printers. The Intermec 9161 concentrator provides on-board data storage if communication to the host is interrupted or stops. This buffering capacity allows for data collection to continue even while the host computer may be busy performing other tasks.