> This basically eliminated any need for buffers, which are the main cause of latency in digital systems. You still need a buffer at each switching point, beca

> This basically eliminated any need for buffers, which are the main cause of latency in digital systems. You still need a buffer at each switching point, because the timeslots on each cable aren't likely to line up. But the buffer for each channel only needs to be 2 samples wide in the worst case where the timeslots overlap and you need to send from the buffer while receiving into the buffer. Given the timeframe when T1/E1 were developed, a more accurate perspective is not that buffers were eliminated, it's that they were never created.