On-Line Data-Acquisition Systems in Nuclear Physics, 1969

by National Research Council . Ad Hoc Panel on On-line Computers in Nuclear Research

D. ON THE UTILITY OF SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED COMPUTERS

If economic realities and good judgment should dictate the choice of a smaller system, the laboratory will still be well off. There is a tendency not to recognize the full capabilities of modern medium-sized and small computers, which, given intelligent programming, are very powerful. Although programming is in general expensive, the return for a modest amount of it in terms of data-acquisition performance may be very impressive. For example, the use of tables calculated ahead of time, stored on magnetic tape at the computing center, and read into the data-acquisition machine along with its control program offers a way to bypass the need for various sorts of calculations which might have been done on-line on a larger system. Increased efficiency of data acquisition often comes from the use of such methods, reflected in increased data-handling rates.