Design philosophy for second generation laboratory computers

Summary

The design of a small chromatography laboratory system should provide for human engineering, economical operation, flexibility and expandability. To accomplish this, the internal system design must be compatible with the external functions of the system. A multi-tasking internal design (similar to that found in large timesharing computers) is a satisfactory solution. The internal design of such a minicomputer system is examined, including the dynamic file structure, the concept of the state-driven algorithm and multitasking operations. Finally, three aspects of the external design are described: multi-type instruments, a high-level interactive programming language and telecommunications.