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The Torches and the Hair
Multi-level signaling is evolving towards ever smaller,
and ever-faster, digital channels

Multi-level signaling is evolving towards ever-smaller,
and ever-faster, digital channels.
This progression has been going on in the electrical
world for over a hundred years. It's unstoppable, and now it's finally
come time for us to adopt multilevel signaling on the backplane.
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Notes regarding use of multi-level signaling in
telegraph systems in 1872 taken from "Edison: A Life of Invention", by
Paul Israel, John Wiley & Sons, 1998 ISBN 0-471-52942-7. This excerpt
describes part of the development of Edison's duplex system which
independently modulated the amplitude and polarity of the telegraph
signal to double the transmitted bit rate on what was essentially a
bandwidth-limited communication channel.
[p. 79] [in 1872] "Edison took a significantly different
approach from the one most commonly employed by those working on duplex
telegraphy. Most other inventors sought to balance the [receiving] relay
electrically at the transmitting station to prevent it from responding
to [outgoing] signals. Edison instead used a neutral relay at one end to
respond to variations in current strength and the familiar polarized
relay at the other end to respond to changes in the polarity of the
current."
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