Importance

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Abstract

The invention is a seismic acquisition system for communicating seismic sensor signals to a recording unit, including a control unit and analog-to-digital conveyer units connected to the control unit. The conveyer units each include integral interconnecting cables having an hermaphroditic connector at each end, analog seismic sensor inputs and signal processing circuitry disposed within a watertight housing forming part of the cables. The circuitry includes analog-to-digital conveyers connected to the analog inputs, a buffer for digitized signals transmitted to one converter unit from other converter units interconnected to the conveyer unit opposite to the control unit connection, a digital transceiver for retransmission of digitized sensor signals and the buffered signals at a first data rate to the control unit. The control unit includes a second buffer for signals from the conveyer unit and for signals retransmitted from other control units serially codected to the control unit. The control unit further includes a second transceiver for retransmitting buffered signals from the conveyer units and from other control units to the recording unit at a second data rate higher than the first data rate. A preferred embodiment includes a data buffering unit interconnected between the recording unit and the control unit. The buffering unit comprises another digital transceiver for communicating control signals from the recording unit and sending digited signals to the recording unit, and a buffer for storing digitized signals from the control unit and from other ones of the buffering units interconnected to the one buffering unit.

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First Claim