The SJ Research BEN is a bridge between an Econet and the SJ Research Nexus networking system. It is a very similar design to the SJ Econet Bridge and also includes the ability to generate an Econet clock on the Econet network being bridged.

The setting of the Clock is by pushing the buttons on the front to select the mark and period in microseconds, or by choosing one of the preset speeds for BBC, Archimedes or MDFS.

The BEN also has an intelligent feature to vary the clock speed depending on what is happening. This is called its "Smart Clock" mode and can be selected from the menu as can be seen in the picture above. In Smart Clock mode, the BEN detects the stations communicating during any given data transmission and adjusts the clock speed to the optimum setting for the activity occurring. So, if two Archimedes stations are communicating, the BEN will set a faster clock speed as these more modern machines can cope with higher speeds. If it's a couple of Beebs, the Smart Clock will slow down a bit to the best speed for these machines.