Computer hardware Macintosh

Formal retirement of obsolete mass spectrometry and Macintosh computer hardware... 

Many mass spectrometers today can work in Windows or Macintosh environments. The development of computer hardware and software over the years has made data handling and processing fast and easy. It is now common practice to produce high-quality copies of spectra collected during an analysis run to be copied and pasted into a document while still performing the analysis. This was an impossible task less than ten years ago when one had to wait for the end of analysis before processing any data obtained from that analysis. 

Many government and commercial impairment testing systems can be implemented on standard commercially available personal computer platforms (e.g., PC, Macintosh). Despite software and hardware advancements that have minimized the differences across platforms, it is still important to consider carefully the hardware and software requirements needed to support a system, as these specifications may have important implications for the accuracy of stimulus presentation and the precision of performance measures. In addition, there may be differential costs associated with the hardware and software specifications. The speed of the computer processor is one important specification that requires careful consideration. Other concerns include the amount of memory that is needed to present the test and record the results, the manner in which the data are to be stored, the size and portability of the computer, and the video-display requirements. Some systems... 

The Macintosh and Intel hardware computing platform and operating system software are essentially incompatible. An emulator is needed to run Windows software on a Macintosh, but there is no corresponding emulator for the Macintosh in a Windows environment that will run the software and be supported by the supplier. 

With increased computational speed available today in microcomputers, it is now feasible to compute modest size structures at the semiempirical level on these machines. A simple illustration of the relative speed of several hardware platforms in the Macintosh series is illustrated in the following test. A PCMODEL minimized structure for bicyclo[2.2.0(l,4)]hexadiene, a rigid 12... 

The hardware needed to communicate with the EBB is unsophisticated. Most schools already have a computer that can communicate with a host through a modem. The EBB server is a Macintosh, and thus a Macintosh at the school is ideal since detailed graphics can be downloaded and printed. The EBB can communicate with IBM computers or clones, Apple II machines, and others, since most of these... 

ChemDraw - Microcomputer chemical structme drawing program, hardware supported Apple Macintosh, available from Cambridge Scientific Computing, Inc., P.O. Box 2123, Cambridge, MA 02238, U.S.A. 

Hardware environments are another challenge to compatibility, especially since the most obvious choice can be risky. When we developed STN Express it was obvious that this software should be compatible with the IBM PC. But since then, the Macintosh has become increasingly popular. There are fads and fashions in the computer market just as in other areas. Today, front-end software should work not only with the IBM and Apple PCs but also with the DEC, Commodore, and NEC, to name a few. Preferences vary over time and also by country. We have seen that the Commodore is rather popular in Germany and the NEC seems to dominate the Japanese market. Those brands are virtually unknown in the United States, while the IBM PC is relatively unfamiliar in Japan. STN Express currently works with MS-DOS the standard interface should also work with, at least, the UNIX and Macintosh operating systems. Perhaps more will be necessary in the future. 

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