IBM Audio Response Units
The IBM 7770 and IBM 7772 Audio Response Units are an early form of interactive voice response (IVR) technology. They allowed users to interact directly with an IBM Mainframe using only a touch-tone telephone or a terminal which could generate tones. They are notable for being part of a number of "first of a kind" IT solutions and also for enabling what is described as the "worlds first talking computer". Despite these products being considered at one point the "industry standard" with up to a 90% market share, IBM did not develop any new products  to replace them. Operation. A user could send an inquiry (or submit data) to an IBM Audio Response Unit (ARU) in one of three ways: The inquiry was always in the form of a series of numeric and control characters. The Audio Response Unit would pass these serially to the attached Mainframe and the response from the Mainframe would be sent to the ARU as codes, corresponding to what words needed to be spoken as a response. The ARU would then look up these codes and play them to the user as spoken words. The inquiry itself could be either  a data lookup, such as a customers bank account balance or a credit check result; or it could be a form of data entry, such as the ID of an absent student, or a retail store order. IBM 7770. The IBM 7770 was announced in 1964 with first shipments planned for first quarter 1965. Rental pricing started at US$1200 per month while the purchase price started at US$57,600. The IBM 7770 was manufactured by IBM in Kingston New York. The IBM 7770 vocabulary is stored on a rotating magnetic drum. The drum is designed to be interchanged if  required, allowing the user to change the vocabulary. Each word is encoded on a separate track on the drum, which is in diameter and long and rotates at 120 rpm (one revolution every 500 ms). Part of the machine order included the vocabulary order. IBM would record the words based on the user order. This meant the user could not record the words themselves. Part of the machine order included the number of carrier lines: There are two panels: There are three models based on which IBM System it attaches to: The physical configuration is determined by the number of  carrier lines: IBM 7772. The 7772 came with support for 2 I/O lines by default and these could be increased to 4, 6 or 8. The vocabulary was stored in a random access disk device in a digitally coded form. Several 1000 words in mulitiple languages could be stored and replayed using the vocoder technique. By default the 7772 came with a 1000 word vocabulary in American English. IBM 7772 was developed by the IBM Lab in La Gaude, France and manufactured by IBM in Kingston New York. The exact announcement and withdrawal dates have not been located. It  is mentioned in online documents as early as 1964 and is listed as withdrawn in the 1979 IBM Sales Manual. It does not appear in any online copy of an IBM Manual after 1977. IBM 1001. The IBM 1001 Data Transmission terminal allows a user to dial into an Audio Response Unit and send characters entered either with a 10 digit keyboard or from the first 22 columns of a punched card. It transmits 12 characters per second. The user has to establish the connection by dialling on the attached telephone. It was announced on July 18,1960 and withdrawn on  January 30, 1980. It was originally launched to transmit data to a remote IBM 24 or IBM 26 Card Punch. External links. University of Michigan 7772 User Guide