> Steve, remember that digital electronics ( I.E. integrated circuits > like uarts) weren’t around during the early days of data > transmission. It was all analog back then, coils, capacitors, and > resistors, so then ideas regarding fast transmission had to wait for > the technology to evolve. Then as ic’s became available, what you > could do with them sparked new ideas. Example: data compression > within the modem using a microprocessor, thus getting higher overall > throughput than the theoretical maximum of just the modulation rate.
Some dates relevant to this discussion: "First" monolithic IC in the lab: 1960. First PCM multiplexed telephone circuit (T1, 1.544 Mbit/s): 1962. First UART IC: 1972. De
