Bowin 



facility. This may be avoided, to some extent, by periodically 

 checking important equipment voltages or parameters. With the 

 necessary interface, the computer can be programmed to check and 

 control scientific or navigational instruments and signal the operator 

 when a detected abnorm.ality exists. The scientist may thereby be 

 released from many routine tasks to plan and direct the current 

 research, and to interpret results. Also, by reducing the data 

 on-line, incorrect or unreasonable data is more obvious, and a 

 prompt check of the scientific instruments can be made. If the 

 computer has the capability of sharing its operation between more 

 than one task (time- sharing), general-purpose computation can be 

 done while the main program is underway. 



THE WOODS HOLE EXPERIMENT 



Since June of 1962, two shipboard data processing and control 

 systems have been implemented by the Geophysics Department of 

 the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution utilizing an IBM 1710 

 Computer System. The first system (System I) is described by 

 Bernstein and Bowin (1963) and Bowin (1963). The second system 

 (System II) is described by Bowin et al. (in press) and Bowin et al. 

 (1967). These efforts were funded largely by contracts Nonr-1367 

 (00) and Nonr-402 9(00) with the Office of Naval Research, 

 Department of the Navy. 



These systems made it possible to automatically sample, 

 compute, and record data concerning the ship's heading and speed, 

 latitude and longitude, water depth, acceleration due to gravity, 

 free-air and Bouguer gravity anomalies, and the magnetic field of 

 the earth. System II also provided on-line plotting of bathymetric, 

 gravity anomaly, and magnetic field profiles; computer control of 

 gravity meter spring tension; processing of surface temperature 

 measurements and ocean sound velocity measurements; reduction 

 of Loran C and VLF radio navigation data to latitude and longitude; 

 display of ship's position and numerical data at remote stations 

 aboard the ship; and malfunction detection and alarm message 

 generation. Experiments were also made using three input/output 

 typewriters at remote locations on the ship. A block diagram of 

 System II is shown in Figure 1. 



Presently, we are implementing a new shipboard computer 

 system (System III) utilizing a Hewlett Packard 211 6A computer. 

 This new system gives promise of considerable expansion 

 capability and as time, money, and personnel are available, we 

 plan to continue development towards a multi-purpose. 



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