Abstract: In complex systems which involve a large amount of interacting electronic equipment and interconnecting cabling, the maintenance and testing required to isolate defective components or components having degraded performance become an almost continuous task. The system of this invention includes new techniques for continuous testing of components and interconnecting cabling of such a complex system such that deteriorating performance can be flagged thereby substantially eliminating catastrophic type system failure without at the same time requiring additional components and interconnecting cabling. This invention is potentially suitable for operation with a data transmission system which includes a master controller for converting parallel digital data from a computer to serial digital data for transmission to the using device through a single communication path where it is then converted to a form suitable for the using device.

Abstract: In complex systems which involve a large amount of interacting electronic equipment, the amount of interconnecting cabling and the attending cross-talk, electromechanical interference and other types of noise pickup become so significant that great expense and skill is required to design a system with satisfactory performance. The system of this invention includes new techniques for data exchange between components of such a complex system with the result that the cross-talk and interference problems are substantially eliminated, while at the same time, the amount of cabling required is reduced to a single communication path which includes only seven conductor pairs. The new system includes a master controller for converting parallel digital data from a computer to serial digital data which is transmitted to the using device through the communication path where it is then converted to a form suitable for the using device.