5.1 INTRODUCTION

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The simplest form of communication is a direct connection between two computers. A network will simultaneously connect a large number of computers on a network.

Data communications have evolved from the 1800's when telegraph machines were used to transmit simple messages using Morse code. This process was automated with teletype machines that allowed a user to type a message at one terminal, and the results would be printed on a remote terminal. Meanwhile, the telephone system began to emerge as a large network for interconnecting users. In the late 1950s Bell Telephone introduced data communication networks, and Texaco began to use remote monitoring and control to automate a polymerization plant. By the 1960s data communications and the phone system were being used together. In the late 1960s and 1970s modern data communications techniques were developed. This included the early version of the Internet, called ARPAnet. Before the 1980s the most common computer configuration was a centralized mainframe computer with remote data terminals, connected with serial data line. In the 1980s the personal computer began to displace the central computer. As a result, high speed networks are now displacing the dedicated serial connections. Serial communications and networks are both very important in modern control applications.