5. Evolution of customized instrumentation

The development of customized instrumentation is undoubtedly due to the development of IBM personal computers.

• IBM's first PCs adopted a modular architecture, incorporating an 8-bit bus whose clock frequency matched that of the Intel 8088 processor (i.e. 4.77 MHz). This was followed by the rapid development of a range of add-on cards that enabled PCs and their compatibles to rise to the level of standard minicomputers.

• In the rapid evolution of microprocessors, it turns out that the bus is one of the decisive elements in the power of computer systems. In 1984, the AT model, based on the Intel 80286 16-bit processor, entered the market. It was accompanied by a new ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus, which is simply an extension of the previous bus, supplemented by an additional...