Design of a Laboratory Computer Interface

An interface for the LSI-11 computer was designed and implemented so that the computer supports data acquisition, data reduction, and equipment control. The design includes both hardware and software and addresses both parallel and serial inputoutput I0. The serial interfaces hardware is simply a Serial Line Unit card. This card plugs into the LSI-11 bus and provides the signals necessary to interface EIA RS-232 compatible devices. A software utility was developed to allow communication with the serial device and to allow exchange of data files. Routines were written to allow serial IO through a FORTRAN program. The interfaces parallel hardware includes the general purpose laboratory interface system GPLIS architecture. In addition, hardware modules were designed to convert certain devices signal levels to TTL levels. Software utilities were developed to acquire and store parallel data and routines were written to allow parallel IO through a FORTRAN program.... Computer interface, General purpose laboratory, Interface system, GPLIS.