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From: goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: TouchTone(tm) in the U.K. (was Re: Touchtone History)
Message-ID: <9792@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 16 Jul 90 16:21:31 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 489, Message 5 of 10


In article <9673@accuvax.nwu.edu>, iosg::robertsn@iosg.enet.dec.com
(Nigel Roberts 0860 578600) writes...

>She went away for four or five minutes and to my amazement came back
>with the answer. 'It's a TXE-2' she said. Full marks to Sarah for
>this.

>What exactly is a TXE-2? (My guess is that it's a magnetic reed type
>exchange).

According to a person here who used to be involved with a large
European switch maker, the TXE-2 is indeed an early electronic-control
exchange using electromechanical matrices.  It's not as "smart" as a
1ESS; the control is more on the order of wired logic than a CPU.

>Is there any way it could support TouchTone? (A BT engineer once told
>me that there might be some kind of black box which they can add).

Probably, if they bothered to insert the registers, but that doesn't
mean they usually do.

I don't know too much more about the beast; the TXE series was an
improvement over Strowger but is certainly not up to today's
standards.  The electronic control probably makes it a lot more
reliable than a traditional WECo crossbar!


Fred R. Goldstein   goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com 
                 or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com
                    voice:  +1 508 486 7388