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Computerized Systems Validation
Published in James Agalloco, Phil DeSantis, Anthony Grilli, Anthony Pavell, Handbook of Validation in Pharmaceutical Processes, 2021
Computerized operations are now common in FDA-regulated industries. Small “minicomputer” systems are being used, sometimes in conjunction with larger computers, to control batching operations, maintain formula files and inventories, monitor process equipment, check equipment calibration, etc. The medical device industry is presently utilizing automatic test sets controlled by computers. In this application, the computer is relied upon as to whether a particular test parameter is within a specific tolerance. The operator does not see the values of the parameters measured but merely receives a green or red light indicating a go/no go situation. Products are accepted or rejected on this basis. In order to evaluate and/or report the adequacy of any computer-controlled processes or tests, the basics of computer construction and operation must be understood. The entire computer control system has been simplified as follows.
The origins of BIM in computer-aided design
Published in Ray Crotty, The Impact of Building Information Modelling, 2013
Mini-computers first appeared in the late 1960s and were in active use as CAD platforms by the early 1970s. The most widely used minis were those of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Data General (DG). Systems were still phenomenally expensive. A typical single user station cost about $150,000 in 1972, additional stations cost $50,000 each – about a million dollars in today's money. For this the customer got a 16-bit computer with 8K–16K of memory, a 10Mb – 20Mb disc drive, a digitiser pad, a plotter and a few other bits and pieces.12 A decade later the seat price was about $130,000, but the buyer got a much bigger bang for his buck.
Computers and Microprocessors
Published in Dale R. Patrick, Stephen W. Fardo, Electricity and Electronics Fundamentals, 2020
Dale R. Patrick, Stephen W. Fardo
In the mid-1960s minicomputers were developed to provide computer technology for applications not requiring the capacity of large-scale computers. These units were significantly less costly than large computers. These computers demonstrated their usefulness with a wide range of applications. CRT displays were used with minicomputers to present an immediate information display for the user. Information is usually placed into these computers through keyboards.
Fifty years in home computing, the digital computer and its private use(er)s
Published in International Journal of Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems, 2020
The step by step transformation of computers into gaming machines had its second origin in the minicomputer era of the late 1960s. Games like ‘Spacewar!’ had been programmed for the PDP-6 by students and DEC used them for advertising and to test the performance of their hardware. It may be that early ‘game affinity’ of DEC that let to the decision of publishing a book on ‘101 BASIC Games’ (collected by David H. Ahl [6]) in 1970. Those BASIC games had to be typed into their computers by the users. The book gained such a huge popularity that Ahl published a sequel [7] and later a ‘microcomputer edition’ [8]. This was the time when magazines for electronic and computer hobbyists flooded the magazine market: publications with computer kits (e.g. ‘Popular Electronics’), club magazines and magazines for specific platforms in different countries. Most of those magazines contained BASIC game programmes that had to be typed in by the readers which was a low price alternative for commercial game software.