wires 15 are analog signals from a plurality of electrodes which measure electrical potential arising from contractions of the cardiac muscle alternatively the electrode wires could carry signals from transducers which represent measurements of acoustic ultrasonic pressure or almost any kind of a physical quantity in other words the data acquisition unit of the present invention is not restricted to use with ekgs but may be used with any group of electrical signals to be transmitted to a remote location with reference to the block diagram of fig3 a ram lookup table 60 may be seen which is connected to receive an input from the host 65 via data lines 66 while having an output to the multiplexers 72 and 74 preferably the sample order register is a volatile memory such as a random access memory or a barrel register the register is of a size sufficient for holding a list containing the sample order for example if sixteen electrical electrodes are to be used a possible sample order might be as follows 10 1 16 2 3 4 5 15 7 12 6 9 8 13 14 11 alternatively in many cases data from only a few electrodes might be required and the sample order might be as follows 3 5 4 6 11 12 3 5 4 6 11 12 3 5 4 etc in either case sixteen numbers consisting of the sample order for sixteen wires are loaded into the sample order register on power up of the circuit host device 65 typically.