Analog bus pins on the XR3070-78X family of RS-485/RS-422 transceivers can withstand direct shorts up to ±18 V and are protected from electrostatic-discharge (ESD) events exceeding IEC Level 4. Exar’s new one-driver/one-receiver transceivers operate from 3.3 V with a 300-µA idle current. As a result, they consume half the power of a comparable ±18-V fault-tolerant solution. The ruggedized nine-member family supports up to 20-Mbit/s data rates in either full- or half-duplex configurations. All operate from a 3.0- to 3.6-V power supply (3.3 V, ±10%), and fully comply to the TIA/EIA-485 and TIA/EIA-422 standards. ESD protection for bus pins extends to ±15 kV (±15-kV IEC 61000-4-2 Air Gap Discharge, ±8-kV IEC 61000-4-2 Contact Discharge, and ±15-kv Human Body Model). Non-bus pins are protected up to ±4-kv Human Body Model. The XR3070-78X devices come in 8 NSOIC and 14 NSOIC packages. Applications include energy metering, building automation, security systems, process control, and other industrial automation.