The evolution of microcomputer-based medical instrumentation

Author

Tompkins, Willis J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Wisconsin-Madison Univ., WI, USA

fYear

1990

fDate

1990

Firstpage

13

Lastpage

15

Abstract

The evolution of the microprocessor from its early beginnings in 1971 as a primitive central processing unit to the powerful component of today has made a significant impact on the design of biomedical instrumentation. More computing power and memory are being squeezed into fewer integrated circuits to provide increasingly more powerful instruments. The PC itself has become a powerful tool in biomedical computing applications. In the future, it will be possible to develop new medical instruments to address problems that were previously not solvable. This possibility exists because microprocessor-based systems continuously increase in computing power and memory and concurrently decrease in size, cost, and power consumption

Keywords

biomedical equipment; computerised instrumentation; medical computing; microcomputer applications; PC; biomedical computing; biomedical instrumentation; computing power; cost; medical instruments; memory; microprocessor-based systems; power consumption; size; Biomedical computing; Biomedical measurements; Central Processing Unit; Costs; Floppy disks; Instruments; Microcomputers; Microprocessors; Personal communication networks; USA Councils;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Colloquium in South America, 1990., Proceedings of the 1990 IEEE

Conference_Location

Argentina, Brazil, Chile

Print_ISBN

0-87942-610-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/COLLOQ.1990.152785

Filename

152785