On-Line Data-Acquisition Systems in Nuclear Physics, 1969: Appendix B

On-Line Data-Acquisition Systems in Nuclear Physics, 1969, by H. W. Fulbright et al. National Research Council is part of HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. Appendix B

At the November 1962 "Grossinger Conference on the Utilization of Multiparameter Analyzers in Nuclear Physics" a paper by W. F. Miller and H. W. Fulbright was presented in which data-analysis systems then in use in AEC-sponsored laboratories in the fields of high-and low-energy nuclear physics were reviewed. By that time many applications of computers had already been made in the high-energy field, while there were only a few examples of computer systems to be found in low-energy laboratories, and those were rather simple.

Chapter 3 gives a similar review, but in this case the high-energy field is excluded; the emphasis is concentrated on the economic aspects of data-acquisition systems used in low-and medium-energy physics. In the earlier paper, only AEC-sponsored laboratories were covered, but in the present case some NSF-supported laboratories are also included. Chapter 3 is a condensed version of a paper presented by H. W. Fulbright at the Skytop "Conference on Computer Systems in Experimental Nuclear Physics" in March 1969.

The first part of Chapter 3 presents a review and a simple analysis of the expenditures for on-line computing in a total of 36 different laboratories supported by the AEC and NSF. The second part presents a discussion of trends visible in, or suggested by the analysis, along with some other remarks about the support of on-line computing facilities in nuclear-physics research laboratories.

Most of the information was supplied by the AEC. It was requested by Paul W. McDaniel in letters sent in December 1968. Information was received from about 90 percent of those from whom it was requested. It was then forwarded to the author C. V. Smith, arriving in the first two weeks of February 1969. The NSF found that certain administrative regulations made the sending out of a questionnaire a complicated procedure, so a different approach had to be adopted in their case. Letters requesting the information were sent by the reviewer himself directly to laboratory directors, the appropriate names and addresses having been kindly supplied by William Rodney of the NSF. Here the response was less complete. Most of the returns arrived by February 21, 1969.

A large amount of information was available for analysis. In many cases the laboratory involved had done a thorough job, and the numbers presented in those cases were especially valuable in providing a basis for estimating expenses for various items omitted in less complete reports from other laboratories, particularly in the case of manpower. In some ways, the information necessarily remained incomplete because no practical means of obtaining it occurred to the reviewer; the organization of the material in the analysis reflects this fact.