Abstract: A hybrid connector system comprising a special jack, a standard coaxial plug effective to make contact with the jack in one mode when inserted therein, and a wire pair plug operable to engage the special jack in another mode when plugged thereinto, the wire pair plug element being adaptable to, or configured especially for, use with shielded twisted pair cables, unshielded twisted pair cables, or ordinary telephone lines. The jack or socket member has first second and third concentric contact members, two of which are arranged to engage respectively, the central and shell contacts of a coaxial cable plug. The third of the contact elements of the socket member is interposed between the first and second contact elements, and the three contact elements are positioned to engage corresponding contact elements of the special plug which, when inserted into the socket completes connection to first and second ones of a wire pair and, optionally, a shield of such wire pair.

Abstract: A system for interconnecting an intelligent controller to a plurality of terminal devices includes a software module, a microprocessor and a device adapter having a plurality of output ports. The system operates under the control of said software module. When the system is powered up, a status for the output ports is assumed and tested under control of a configuration register. If the test is successful, the terminal port remains in that state; if unsuccessful, the state of the terminal port is reversed. The system permits an exchange of operating modes in the terminal devices associated with one port without adversely affecting operation of the remaining ports in the system.

Abstract: A remote fan out facility used in an information handling system including a plurality of data terminals located remotely from a central processor unit. Messages transmitted from the central processing unit to one of the plurality of data terminals are modified by creating and inserting a terminal device address into the outbound messages. The messages are then transmitted to a fan out box located near the addressed terminal. The fan out box strips the terminal address from the received message, decodes the stripped address, and directs the message to the appropriate data terminal according to the stripped decoded address. By this means, a single serial transmission link can be used to connect the central processing unit to a plurality of data terminals without undue modification of an existing system.