Computer-link industry pushing forward

The US data communications industry continues to move ahead at a healthy clip , although major changes are taking place in the product sales mix, according to a Datamation magazine survey of the 50 top manufacturers of data communications equipment.

In 1979 the industry leaders generated equipment sales estimated at $1.1 billion, up from $707 million the previous year, excluding carriers.

That year for the first time, however, "modems" which are the "translating" elements that make possible the transmission of data between computer complexes, accounted for the lion's share of data communications product sales. Lumped together with "multiplexors," which are used to transmit data between devices within a computer center and which also allow combining intercomputer data streams sent over carrier facilities, modems accounted for more than 40 percent of total industry sales, up from an estimated 9 percent the previous year.

Modems have become key elements in t he technical control centers being installed in large private line computer networks.