A new development in the transmission, storage and conversion of digital data

There is a present trend in data processing systems toward the decentralization of computer systems as exemplified by time-sharing and related techniques. A consequence of this development is a requirement for digital communication systems capable of operating reliably at comparatively high speeds. One of the oldest known forms of such communication is the printing telegraph which operates at the lower end of the speed spectrum at rates ranging from 50 to 100 baud. There is some evidence to suggest that for routine digital communications purposes, particularly in the timesharing area, the economic maximum for a few years into the future will lie in the vicinity of 1000 to 2000 baud and that the volume of traffic at these rates will rapidly increase. Present practice is generally to transmit data at such rates in "real time" only over communication paths which are not expected to fail during the transmission period. In the future, however, it is a virtual certainty that low-cost buffering devices will be required having the speed, versatility and storage capacity to handle system requirements at rates up to 4800 baud or more.