Workstations single-task

Automation of the analytical process by use of robotic equipment (robotic stations and workstations included) can reach from a single step to the whole analytical sequence. The number of steps that are robotized should be dictated by the user s experience and judgement, always as a function of the target process, costs, number of samples to be processed, etc. Straightforward single-task uses of robots, robotic sample preparation procedures and fully robotized methods are discussed below, as are more rational uses in combination with other techniques intended to ensure optimum development of each step of the analytical process. 

One cannot fail to be amazed at the pace of development in the computer industry, where the ratio of performance-to-price has increased by an order of magnitude every five years or so. The workstations that are commonplace in many laboratories now offer a real alternative to centrally maintained supercomputers for molecular modelling calculations, especially as a workstation or even a personal computer can be dedicated to a single task, whereas the supercomputer has to be shared with many other users. Nevertheless, in the immediate future there will always be some calculations that require the power that only a supercomputer can offer. The speed of any computer system is ultimately constrained by the speed at which electrical signals can be transmitted. This means that there will come a time when no further enhancements can be made using machines with traditional single-processor serial architectures, and parallel computers will play an ever more important role. 

Zymark has proposed simple and inexpensive workstations designed for specific tasks. Furthermore, some noncommercial systems for single tasks include a microwave digestion system for dissolution of Ti(IV) oxide and adaptations of workstations for special tasks such as the robotic-chromatographic method for the determination of glycosylated haemoglobin. 

Products in Group 3 seem to us to represent the future of practical batch process control. In such systems, modern workstations perform the single-user functions (e.g control system design, set-up, and maintenance operator interface data collection historical reporting) for which they were designed, while powerful multitasking controllers perform actual control. As computer hardware and software standards continue to evolve toward distributed networks of processors optimized for specific kinds of tasks, such systems will, we feel, proliferate rapidly. 

As a technician, you will quickly realize that this is very good for you Because of Microsoft s standardization of a single graphical interface for all of its operating systems, most basic tasks are accomplished in identical fashion on everything from a Windows 95 workstation computer to a Windows 2000 Advanced Server computer. Also, while the tools that are used often vary between Windows 98 and 2000, the way you use those tools remains remarkably consistent across platforms. 

Because workstations can be designed and dedicated to a single, specific task, they are normally simpler mechanically and usually more reliable than are robotic stations. In addition, they can provide a data trail for regulatory compliance and are typically designed to be operated by non-experts. Commercial workstations vary in their level of sophistication, which allows the automation of even the most simple procedures. Economically, automation can benefit anybody running more than 150 samples a day and can justify purchasing a moderately priced workstation. More sophisticated workstations, however, are only profitable with a heavier workload. As a rule, a workstation will replace a 40 000-a-year technician and have a one- to two-year payback period. 

In the case of a small enterprise and a single company site, the only additional task in establishing connectivity is to implement interconnections between the PCs and workstations used by the company staff. This is done by building the LAN (local area network) of the organization so that the resources (servers as well as PCs and workstations) are connected to the in-house infrastructure, in most cases an ethernet network, of the company. The required speed of the internal network depends on the traffic estimates. New ethernet solutions allow even gigabit per second transmission. 

Workstation farms or open clusters are collections of previously installed personal computing stations and group shared servers, loosely coupled by means of one or more LANs for access to common resources, that, although primarily employed for separate and independent operation, are occasionally used in concert to process single coordinated distributed tasks. Workstation farms provide superior performance/price over even other cluster types in that they exploit previously paid-for but otherwise unused computing cycles. Because their interconnection network is shared for other purposes and not op-... 

---