A Hierarchical Network for Data Acquisition and Control

This paper discusses a hierarchical computer network for monitoring and controlling experimental processes. The computer network consists of micro and minicomputers for interfacing a variety of experiments to the network, a medium scale process control computer for data reduction and formatting, and a communications control computer to link the network to a large scale digital computer for processing experimental data. Some of the hardware and software requirements at each level of the network are discussed. The application of the network is illustrated with experiments operating at different levels in the network.