Digital data processor

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR RECORDING A NUMBER OF ANALOG INPUT CHANNELS OF INFORMATION IN DIGITIZED FORM ON MAGNETIC TAPE, THE APPARATUS COMPRISING MEANS FOR RECORDING BINARY CODED DIGITS ON MAGNETIC TAPE, COMMUTATING MEANS FOR SUCCESSIVELY SAMPLING THE INPUT CHANNELS, DIGITIZING MEANS COUPLED TO THE OUTPUT OF THE COMMUTATING MEANS FOR CONVERTING THE VOLTAGE LEVEL OF EACH CHANNEL SAMPLE TO A GROUP OF DATA DIGITS IN BINARY CODED FORM FOR DIRECT RECORDING ON TAPE, TIME ACCUMULATOR MEANS FOR CONTINUOUSLY INDICATING ELAPSED TIME BY A GROUP OF TIME DIGITS IN BINARY CODED FORM FOR DIRECT RECORDING ON TAPE, A WORD COUNTER FOR CYCLICALLY COUNTING THE NUMBER OF DIGITS TRANSFERRED TO THE MAGNETIC TAPE TO DETERMINE WHEN A COMPLETE WORD HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED TO TAPE, A SOURCE COUNTER FOR CYCLICALLY ACTIVATING IN SUCCESSIVE COUNT CONDITIONS THE TIME ACCUMULATOR MEANS, AND THE COMMUTATING AND DIGITIZING MEANS, MEANS FOR SENSING THE COUNTING OF A COMPLETE CYCLE OF THE WORD COUNTER AND THE COUNT CONDITION OF THE SOURCE COUNTER FOR ADVANCING THE SOURCE COUNTER TO THE CONDITION FOR ACTIVATING THE TIME ACCUMULATOR MEANS TO TRANSFER TIME DIGITS SERIALLY TO THE MAGNETIC TAPE RECORDING MEANS, MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE COMPLETION OF A CYCLE OF THE WORD COUNTER, THE COUNT CONDITION OF THE SOURCE COUNTER, AND THE TRANSFER OF THE LAST OF SAID GROUP OF TIME DIGITS TO MAGNETIC TAPE FOR ADVANCING THE SOURCE COUNTER TO THE CONDITION FOR ACTIVATING THE COMMUTATING AND DIGITIZING MEANS, MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE WORD COUNTER FOR ADVANCING THE COMMUTATING MEANS AT SELECTED INTERVALS IN SYNCHRONISM WITH THE COUNTING OF THE WORD COUNTER, MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE ADVANCING OF THE COMMUTATING MEANS FOR SENSING THE NUMBER OF SAID INPUT CHANNELS THAT ARE SAMPLED, AND MEANS FOR PERIODICALLY RECYCLING THE SOURCE COUNTER FOLLOWING A PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF SAMPLED INPUT CHANNELS, THE NUMBER OF INPUT CHANNELS SAMPLED BEING PRESET AS DESIRED.