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Unleashing a Microcomputer in the Laboratory, Part III

Summary 
 
At first, reactions to using microcomputers in the laboratory can easily be quite negative. After all, we must write most of our own software and design many of our own interfaces or circuits. Recent books help with learning to program in Basic. The problem is to find software that actually works in performing a given task. The programs in Refs. 3 and 4 are often used as guides. Interfacing guides are available5 to help in the hardware department. In addition, there are many other self-help and general-information books and articles available in current micro-computing magazines. 
 
 
 
There are many positive aspects to bringing microcomputers into the laboratory. First, they provide a low-cost training ground for both engineers and technicians in the world of digital data gathering and analysis. Second, several small systems are available at low cost and provide tremendous flexibility to cover a multitude of jobs. Several systems give distributed computing, data gathering, and the like; thus the failure of one unit does not shut down the entire data-gathering process. Third, the instant feedback feature of using micros helps to dispel the ‘black box’ syndrome as the staff learns to use microcomputers. It is gratifying to watch your data plotted on a printer by a high-speed plot routine you have written yourself, such as shown in Fig. 3. Fourth, the lessons learned from using microcomputers in laboratory situations will put the laboratory staff in a better position to specify larger data systems. The final aspect is the enthusiasm and creativity that is easily stimulated by working with these units. 
 
 
 
The microcomputer is a low-cost friend around the laboratory. We use our four computers (two original 8-k PETs, a 4032 PET, and 8032 CBM with 8050 dual disk drives-1 megabyte storage) for many tasks, such as data gathering, theoretical calculations, data reduction, data plotting, and even word processing. With digital data acquisition becoming more and more important, these low-cost machines are an attractive learning tool and workhorse. We have paid for our units many times over in savings on mainframe computing costs alone, not to mention doing experiments that would be out of the question any other way.