FIGURE 15 Cost of data-acquisition subsystem plotted against central processor costs for 36 systems.
E. BREAKDOWN OF COSTS BY SYSTEMS
In Figure 14 the cost of the standard I/O equipment is shown plotted against the cost of the CPU for 36 different systems. The high point labeled "T" represents a system having many high-speed magnetic tape drives. The low point labeled "R" represents the Rochester system, which must be considered unbalanced, because its only "standard" I/O equipment is four Dectapes, which should, perhaps, have been defined as CPU items, since they cannot be used for communication with most computing centers. If a line printer and two IBM-compatible tape units were added, the Rochester point would have to be raised at least as high as the position R'. The straight line shown in Figure 14 was drawn with a slope of one half. It may perhaps be taken to represent a rough statistical reflection of the collective experience accumulated over the past six years or so regarding the relative costs of I/O and CPU equipment. In Figure 15 DAS costs are plotted against CPU costs for the same 36 systems. Here the spread of the points is worse than in the previous case, as expected for the reasons mentioned earlier. The exceptionally high point labeled "PHA" represents a system with three large pulse-height analyzers, two of them 20,000-channel units, in the DAS. The straight line shown has the equation y = 8.0 + 0.7x. The overall DAS cost is 77 percent of the total CPU cost.
F. ROTATING MEMORY DEVICES
One magnetic drum unit and 11 disks were reported to be in service (in eight different laboratories). Plans were reported for the installation of six more disk units and one drum (in five different laboratories). Recognition of the importance of rotating memory devices in display applications is evident in the reports.
G. SYSTEMS ON-LINE WITH COMPUTING CENTERS
Two systems were clearly stated to be in successful on-line operation with external computing centers. (At least one more example, at the University of Manitoba, is known: there a PDP-9 system is linked to an IBM 360/65.)
There are plans in various stages of development to connect nine different data-acquisition systems on-line with computing center machines, in most cases to operate on a delayed-access basis.
H. ANTICIPATED FUTURE EXPENDITURES
In cases where updating or enlarging of existing systems was said to be in progress, the costs reported were usually assigned by the reviewer to the present system, especially when money for the expansion seemed already available or very likely to become available. In many cases plans were in a less advanced state, but a fairly definite idea of the amount of money to be requested for expansion or for completely new systems was expressed. Table 11 summarizes these anticipated costs.