Automatic Data Processing in the Physical Sciences

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter analyzes the scope for automatic data processing (ADP) in the physical sciences. Data processing, or the purposeful manipulation of signals and symbols, is common to all the sciences. While mechanical aids such as the recording meter, the slide rule, and the desk calculator have long been familiar in this activity, its large-scale mechanization has been achieved only in the last decade by linking electronic and electromechanical devices in complex, automatic systems. The three major applications of ADP in experimental work are broadly given as: solution of mathematical problems and models; simulation of systems; and conversion and analysis of experimental data. An automatic data processor for large-scale experiments is one of the most complicated of artifacts. Once its purpose is defined, detailed design may occupy several man-years of skilled effort and is followed by the still larger effort of construction and testing. This chapter provides general description of the ADP systems. Concepts of acquisition, storage, and conversion of data are explained. The chapter also discusses different examples of automatic systems.