| Until fairly recently most scientific data-gathering systems and industrial control procedures were based on electromechanical devices such as chart recorders and analogue gauges. The capability to process and analyse data was rather limited (and in some cases error prone) unless one had access to a minicomputer or mainframe. Today, that situation has changed considerably. I am sure that most potential readers of this book will be aware of the profound effect the PC has had on the way in which engineers and scientists are able to approach data-gathering tasks.
Despite the now widespread use of various types of PC for automated data capture, there has been only a small number of publications on PC-based DA&C. Most if not all of these texts have concentrated on the hardware aspects of interfacing and measurement. A book emphasizing the design of DA&C software is long overdue.
One of the reasons for this has become increasingly apparent to me during the course of writing the present text. The subject spans numerous conventional disciplines and no single book can really do full justice to every aspect of this interdisciplinary subject. DA&C programming tends to require skills in (or at least a basic knowledge of) a range of subjects and, for this reason, the book draws together elements of programming, PC architecture, operating systems, interfacing, communications, sampling theory and process control. |
