A Second Generation Personal Computer Network for Automated Hydro-Mechanical Testing

This paper is a description of a distributed processor network using a single shared hard disk with multiple brand personal computers in a hydraulics engineering department and laboratory.

Four major topics are presented. First, the laboratory's test articles and facilities are discussed. The second section gives a detailed description of the network. Overall network criteria are developed and the network's configuration specified. System performance is discussed next. A description of its hardware and software status leads to a detailed example of the cost/benefit analysis for a particular application.