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IN BRIEF: Computer productivity tools
By Christine M. Ferrara, Associate Editor -- Design News, June 20, 1999
The Allen-Bradley RAC6181 industrial computer from Rockwell Automation is outfitted with a 10.4-inch color thin film transistor (TFT) active-matrix flat panel display. The computer is powered by either a Pentium 166 or a Pentium MMX 233 processor. The hard drive is shock-mounted against vibration, and is available in either a low- or high-capacity version.
Indicator Solution '99 Windows-based software program from Littelfuse Inc., POWR-GARDTM Products Div. focuses on five major areas of hidden expense: system downtime, nuisance opening, equipment damage, safety-related costs, and excess fuse inventory. By keying in factors specific to individual businesses such as annual number of fuses used, electricians' hourly wage, number of units produced per hour per machine, and profit per unit, plant managers can calculate annual cost savings by changing over their inventory of non-indicating circuit protection products to Littelfuse IndicatorTM fuses, the company says.
BioBenchTM software from National Instruments is for physiological data acquisition and analysis for use in research and academic environments. BioBench, a turnkey package for Windows 95/NT PCs, requires no programming to get users up and running, the company says. Users can begin acquiring and analyzing data immediately. The software can automatically configure and acquire data from physiological instruments from a variety of manufacturers, as well as acquire data directly from sensors via the company's plug-in data acquisition hardware. Potential applications include researching disease by monitoring physiological data and the effects of different drugs on physiological responses.
