On-Line Data-Acquisition Systems in Nuclear Physics, 1969: Chapter 1 - MATCHING COMPUTERS TO TASKS

On-Line Data-Acquisition Systems in Nuclear Physics, 1969, by H. W. Fulbright et al. National Research Council is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. Chapter 1: MATCHING COMPUTERS TO TASKS

D. MATCHING COMPUTERS TO TASKS

Having classified both the computers and the jobs that they may be called on to do, we now ask this question: How suitable is each of the three types of computers for each of the three classes of jobs, given that in every case the acquisition system consists of a single computer coupled to all necessary input and output equipment?

1. Large Computers

We start with the large computer system. All classes of jobs can be handled by this powerful system. However, we should question the wisdom of assembling a system based on a large machine unless a substantial amount of numerical calculating is anticipated, because the essential advantage of the large computer—the advantage that costs so much—is its capacity for rapidly executing highly accurate floating-point arithmetical operations.

2. Small Computers

The small computer system can handle the jobs of data acceptance, data manipulation, and output characteristic of the simple Class 1 operations, but they are suitable for very few jobs involving floating-point arithmetic. In fact, we must usually be skeptical about the use of small machines for any of the Class 2 operations except those of the process-control type, which in many cases would involve little if any arithmetic. (Process-control applications have been rather few to date, but a rapid increase can be expected in this field, especially because of the convenience and low cost of small modern computers.) It is apparent that these machines have been designed as economical instruments specifically intended to handle Class 1 jobs.

The smallest word length of a machine in this group, 12 bits, is sufficient for storing in one word the output of a 4096-channel ADC unit, but it is not quite so convenient for handling the output of a typical scaler, which would likely require the use of two words. The capability of even a small computer system to convert experimental information into digital form, to transfer it into memory, to manipulate it, and to present it for inspection in a digested, convenient form, all at a high rate and essentially without error, is of immense value to an experimenter who has to cope with the abundant outflow of data from a modern nuclear experiment.

3. Medium-Sized Computers

The capabilities of medium-sized computers are less clear. These machines are superior to the small ones mainly in two respects: they have a more flexible command structure (i.e., they have a larger set of wired-in operations), and, usually, they have a longer word length. These features make them easier to program and give them a limited, but important, capability to execute floating-point operations sufficiently quickly and accurately for many purposes, even though these operations must in most cases be programmed, in the absence of floating-point hardware. We can reasonably conclude that the medium-sized machines will serve for any use listed in Classes 1 and 2. Certain simpler calculations of Class 3a are also expected to prove feasible, but few, if any, of those of Class 3b.

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H. W., Fulbright et al. 2013. On-Line Data-Acquisition Systems in Nuclear Physics, 1969. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved May 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42613/42613-h/42613-h.htm#Page_5

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