On-Line Data-Acquisition Systems in Nuclear Physics, 1969: Chapter 4 - GROWTH CONSIDERATIONS

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. Chapter 4: GROWTH CONSIDERATIONS

E. GROWTH CONSIDERATIONS

The system planner should try to anticipate a possible future expansion. In the case of a cut-and-dried process-control application it will often be safe to assume that the system will not have to grow, but recent history shows that in the case of general-purpose systems growth is the rule. In fact, systems have sometimes had to be replaced by entirely new ones. The system planner must beware of pitfalls. If, in anticipation of a greater future need, a much larger CPU is ordered than current use demands, the anticipated need may not develop. Or, if it happens that the money initially available for capital investment is so limited that it is all exhausted in buying the CPU, leaving the system badly short of conventional I/O equipment, then the system will remain painfully unbalanced until substantial additional funds appear. If those funds do not appear, the capability of the system will remain far less than the presence of the large CPU would suggest. (This is what happened at Rochester, where three years after the system was installed there is still no card reader, line printer, or conventional magnetic tape drive system; in fact, there is no computer-language medium for communication with the University of Rochester Computing Center.)

FIGURE 16 A data-acquisition system based on a medium-sized computer. Prices are actual costs for equipment supplied by a well-known manufacturer. This system is powerful enough to satisfy most data-acquisition needs at a typical low-energy accelerator laboratory.

The correct strategy to employ in every case should be consistent with the size of the laboratory and with the capabilities of its staff. A laboratory with a small engineering staff and with modest computing needs for the immediate future should certainly not plan to set up a large system. Instead it could sensibly begin with a manufacturer-assembled, trimmed-down version of the Comparison System (Figure 16), which could be enlarged later as occasion demanded and funds permitted.

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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_71

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