Minicomputer controller for a behavioral primate laboratory

To keep pace with the increased animal carrying load and research productivity of our facilities by perpetual modification of and additions to rigid hardwired equipment would have been a costly and time-consuming enterprise. Thus, a computer controller for the laboratory was an inevitable choice to replace our highly individualized analog and digital units. Our system is based on a minimally configured PDP-8/e, devoid of peripherals except for a Teletype, in which the first phase was guided by the intent to replace separate component instrumentation with a unified digital computer system. The interface design was confined to five different printed circuit boards which in combination could handle computer I/O, switch contact inputs, analog threshold inputs, and medium current output control. Our software package can be divided functionally into three parts: the program interrupt handler, the background control programs, and the resident subroutines.