Multiplexer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A piece of equipment that integrates various data inputs into a single output, determining which one to send based on control inputs, facilitates multiple simultaneous data streams through a unified channel
2. An electronic system that merges several input signals into a singular output, directing which signal to transmit according to specific control mechanisms, allows multiple sources to share one communication line
3. A device that consolidates two or more input signals into a single output stream, choosing the active signal based on control signals, permits various data sources to communicate over one path

Etymology: The word "multiplexer" is a plain compound: "multiplex," borrowed from Latin "multiplex," meaning "manifold" or "having many folds," combined with the English agent suffix "-er," meaning a thing that performs an action. Latin "multiplex" was itself built from "multi-," "many," and "-plex," a root related to "plicare," "to fold." So the device's name literally describes something that folds many streams into one. The surprise lies in the older English sense of "multiplex." Long before engineers used it for signal systems, the adjective simply meant "having many parts or elements," and it was applied to complicated structures and situations. The engineering use grew from that general sense of combining many parts, so a multiplexer is a machine that does, in hardware, what "multiplex" always suggested: gathering many things into one arrangement.

Synonyms: data combiner, signal multiplexer