A firmware APL time-sharing system

Abstract

Incremental advances in technological design often result in qualitative advances in utilization of technology. The recent introduction of low-cost, microprogrammed computers makes it feasible to dedicate highly sophisticated and powerful computation systems where previously the needed performance could not be economically justified. Historically, the contribution made by the computing sciences to the behavioral sciences has been limited largely to statistical analysis precisely because sufficiently sophisticated computing equipment was available only outside the experimental situation. Inexpensive time-sharing systems have recently made it possible to integrate the computer in a novel way as a tool for conducting experiments to measure human behavior in laboratory situations. A detailed presentation of computerized control of social science experimentation is presented later. However, many aspects of the system are of general interest because they exploit the possibilities of a newly available computer generation.