The Computer Systems Laboratory is developing an Advanced Laboratory Workstation (ALW), which is a small to mid-size ($10,000-$20,000), 32-bit UNIX-based computing engine intended for biomedical research laboratory applications. The project involves the development and integration of a wide variety of software packages into a foundation that can be used by CSL engineers, or scientists themselves, to quickly customize an ALW for a particular purpose. We plan to include functions that are valuable in the research laboratory and that state-of-the-art technology makes economically feasible: data acquisition, scientific data processing, data presentation networking data base management, modeling, document preparation, and software development. Our strategy is to purchase the best software that is compatible with the workstation hardware and operating system and integrate it under a user-friendly """"""""desk top"""""""" interface. Modern programming techniques such as object-oriented programming will be explored as a means of increasing productivity and software portability.
