The IBM 1712 Multiplexer and Terminal Unit was part of the IBM 1710

IBM 1710

The IBM 1710 was a process control system that IBM introduced in March 1961. It used either a 1620 I or a 1620 II Computer and specialized I/O devices .The IBM 1620 used in the 1710 system was modified in several ways, the most obvious was the addition of a very...

 process control

Process control

Process control is a statistics and engineering discipline that deals with architectures, mechanisms and algorithms for maintaining the output of a specific process within a desired range...

 computer. The Terminal Unit provided the physical connections between factory wiring and the computer. The 1712 could support up to 300 separate wire pairs. Signal types supported included analog input, analog output, contact sense, contact operate, process branch indicators and process interrupts. Special terminal blocks supported thermocouple

Thermocouple

A thermocouple is a device consisting of two different conductors that produce a voltage proportional to a temperature difference between either end of the pair of conductors. Thermocouples are a widely used type of temperature sensor for measurement and control and can also be used to convert a...

 inputs. The Multiplexer selects which signal was connected to the IBM 1711

IBM 1711

The IBM 1711 Data Converter was part of the IBM 1710 process control computer. The 1711 contained an analog-to-digital converter that accepted signals from the IBM 1712 Multiplexer and Terminal Unit that were between -50 millivolts and +50 millivolts and converted them into signed, four decimal...

Data Converter.