The PRODAC 50: An Industrial Control Computer

The stored program digital computer has become a workhorse in control and data logging situations in a great diversity of industrial processes. Reliable equipment demonstrating impressive on-line performance has been carrying out a multitude of control tasks ranging from the pedestrian to the complex. One of the principle reasons for this success is to be found in the underlying design philosophy which emphasizes simplicity of both system and circuit design. A control processor exemplifying this design approach is the PRODAC 50 computer. Some insight into the particular appropriateness of this design to control applications is presented by means of a characterization of two specific applications and a brief look at and an analysis of the design itself.