Intelligent Instruments
About Intelligent Instruments
The impact that the microprocessor has
had on the domestic consumer is very evident, with its inclusion in
washing machines, vehicle fuel control systems and home computers to
name but a few applications. The advent of the microprocessor has had
an equally significant, though perhaps not so obviously apparent,
impact on the field of instrumentation. It is therefore fitting that a
section should be devoted to describing the principles of operation of
microprocessors and explaining how they are included and programmed as
a microcomputer within a measuring instrument, thereby producing what
has come to be known as an intelligent instrument.
An intelligent instrument comprises all the usual elements of a
measurement system and is only distinguished from dumb
(non-intelligent) measurement systems by the inclusion of a
microprocessor to fulfill the signal processing function. The effect
of this computerization of the signal processing function is an
improvement in the quality of the instrument output measurements and a
general simplification of the signal processing task. Some examples of
the signal processing which a microprocessor can readily perform
include correction of the instrument output for bias caused by
environmental variations (e.g. temperature changes), and conversion to
produce a linear output from a transducer whose characteristic is
fundamentally non-linear.
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Elements of a Microcomputer
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The Number
Systems
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Programming and Program Execution
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Computer
Interfacing
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Computer Address Decoding
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Data
Transfer Control
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Analog to Digital Conversion (A/D)
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Digital to Analog Conversion (D/A)
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Intelligent Instruments in Use
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