Minicomputers are often underemployed and could be replaced by less powerful systems. The need for a product with characteristics intermediate between the minicomputer and hardwired systems resulted recently in the commercialization of inexpensive microprocessor units. A general purpose microcomputer has been designed around such a microprocessor unit, and the capabilities and limitations of this new device, when used to solve problems encountered in an analytical laboratory, are reported. Examples include: (1) on-line filtering of an analog signal at the output of a liquid chromatograph, (2) use as a buffer memory to rapidly store data from a GC/MS and then output it slowly on an inexpensive recorder, and (3) the analysis of noise from a new liquid chromatography detector using a conventional recorder as a storage oscilloscope. Applications for these inexpensive units are limitless, and we foresee their use in almost every field of instrumentation in future years.