Workstations peripherals

Systems may also include modems, which connect small computers or terminals to other computers or workstations either in-house or over telephone system lines and whose speed of transmission is rated by baud (for binary information units, the number of bits transmitted per second). Common baud rates for small systems are 2400 or 9600 with higher rates possible. Computers may also be networked together to share data or peripheral components such as highspeed printers. 

Workstations. Workstations are the most powerful computers in the system, capable of performing functions not normally available in other units. A workstation acts both as an arbitrator unit to route internodal communications and as the database server. An operator interface is supported, and various peripheral devices are coordinated through the workstations. Computationally intensive tasks, such as real-time optimization or model predictive control, are implemented in a workstation. Operators supervise and control processes from these workstations. Operator stations may be connected directly to printers for alarm logging, printing reports, or process graphics. 

Tab 8.2. I mportant peripheral modules in robotic screening workstations... 

The most salient difference between robotic stations and workstations is that, whereas a workstation can only be used for the tasks (all or some) for which it was constructed, robotic stations can be modified by changing their software, modules or peripherals as required to undertake one or more specific tasks, or even a whole analytical process. As a result, describing a workstation is as simple as listing its intended functions, whereas characterizing a robotic station includes stating the type of arm it uses and the equipment that helps the arm perform its tasks. 

Choosing between a robot plus peripherals and a workstation is a difficult task. From the beginning, automation held the promise of freeing analysts from cumbersome, time-consuming, repetitive tasks. This is especially true with the quality control (QC) laboratory, which must routinely test products such as pharmaceuticals or foods prior to release, often with a well-defined analytical procedure dictated by regulatory requirements. In these laboratories, workstations are typically the best solution as they are often more hardwired and are better in QC laboratories, where the analytical steps are well-understood and this equipment does save laboratories time and money. The best solution for implementing the complex treatments required by some solid samples is the sequential use of two workstations when this is impossible, a robotic station is the next-best choice in most instances. 

Figure 11-12 Use of a robot on a linear track allows placement of peripheral equipment with which the robot interacts on a rectangular table.This workstation configuration uses a more conventional rectangular space that can be set along a wail. (From Boyd JC, Felder RA, Savory J. Robotics and the chan0ng face of the clinical laboratory. Clin Chem 1996 42 1901-10.)...

Automation of assays based on nearly every biochemical effect like enzymatic reactions, cell-surface receptor-, and intracellular receptor binding, protein-protein-, and protein-nucleic acid interaction, cell adhesion, etc. has been reported. Robotic systems used in biological screening can be devided into workstation-type systems [354] and integrated systems [355].Integrated systems are custom-made and allow one to integrate nearly every peripheral module necessary for screening courses. 

PCI (peripheral component interconnect) is a good example of such a bus. It is not as sophisticated as the Fu-turebus P896, but its adequate set of features has spread its usage on the PCs and workstations of the late 1990s. Transfer speed is up to 120 MBytes/s on a 32-bit wide... 

The entire set-up has been integrated into the WODCA system (Workbench for the Organisation of Data for Chemical AppUcations). WODCA has been implemented on SUN workstations with peripheral graphical input and output programmes that make heavy use of the window techniques of the Sun View... 

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