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LABORATORY COMPUTER NETWORKS Chemists will benefit as major suppliers move toward more standardized products for the automated laboratory Interest in laboratory computer networks has been increasing because of a growing realization that networking can help organize the hodgepodge of incompatible instruments and computers found in many laboratories into a coherent system. Networks become especially powerful when they include laboratory information management systems (LIMS), software products designed to facilitate efficient control of all aspects of laboratory operation, from sample tracking to report generation to data storage. LIMS packages are now available from a large number of vendors, including Beckman Instruments' Computer Inquiry Systems subsidiary, Hewlett-Packard Company, Perkin-Elmer Corporation, Philips Group, Radian Corporation, Spectrogram Corporation, and the Varian Instrument Group/Digital Equipment Corporation consortium (Varian/ DEC). Networks are generally divided into two types, local and global. Local networks make it possible for instruments and computers within a single laboratory or building to communicate. Hardware-software units called gateways can be used to tie a local system into & global network for longdistance communications with other local networks, with corporate mainframes, or with commercial data bases. "We've just passed the stage of technology where small benchtop instruments are routinely connected to higher level laboratory computer systems which, in turn, can interface with the largest corporate mainframes," ex-
plains Thomas W. Barnard, vice-president for Computer-Aided Chemistry at Perkin-Elmer. Designing a laboratory computer net is fairly straightforward—in theory at least—but the incompatibility of many commercial instruments and computers has turned out to be a serious obstacle to network design. The fact is that instrument and computer vendors have had few incentives in the past to cooperate on standard instrument design protocols. To the contrary, competition was frequently based on trying to design proprietary instruments that were better than the next guy's. Automating the laboratory, however, means that different brands of instruments have to learn to communicate with each other, and vendors have begun to respond to this need for compatibility by moving toward greater use of standards in instrument design. Lab automation specialists say these moves will benefit the entire industry in the long run, since companies that adopt the standards will be able to compete fairly and equitably in a more open market environment. The Industry Wants to Standardize Varian, which manufactures instruments and software for analytical chemistry, embraced this trend toward greater standardization in 1983 when it announced a joint venture with DEC to market a LIMS system, the VAX-11 LIMS, and a full line of DEC computers. Varian/DEC's products support a number of indus-
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try standard protocols for local and global networking. And at a press seminar held this past December in Norwalk, Conn., the Perkin-Elmer Corporation introduced its new Everyware product strategy, a term that refers to an increased emphasis on the incorporation of hardware and software design standards into Perkin-Elmer instruments and computers. The company sells a full line of computers—professional computers, minis, and superminis—a LIMS system (the LIMS/2000), and a wide variety of instruments and software for analytical chemistry. "The trend is clear," said PerkinElmer president Horace G. McDonell, Jr., at the seminar. "The industry wants to standardize, and the technology is available today to make that possible. Once it becomes clear that the customer need not become committed to a custom or proprietary solution to his problem, then he will not become so committed." The Everyware line of equipment will use the Idris operating system, for instance. Idris, a product of Whitesmiths, Ltd., is functionally compatible with Unix, an operating system developed at American Telephone & Telegraph Company's (AT&T's) Bell Laboratories. Unix has become very popular with computer professionals—so popular, in fact, that AT&T's archrival, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), announced in January its intention to offer a version of Unix for use on IBM personal computer products. Perkin-Elmer also announced that 0003-2700/84/0351-408AS01.50/0 (c 1984 American Chemical Society
Focus it is making a number of networking protocols available on its products for the first time, including Ethernet, a popular local area network standard originally developed by Xerox Corporation, and protocols for global networking, including X.25, SNA, IBM 3270 emulation, and the IBM 2780/ 3780 protocol. X.25 is an American National Standards Institute public networking protocol for low-speed data communications over commercial telephone lines. SNA (which stands
for systems network architecture), 3270 emulation, and 2780/3780 are standards used for communications in an IBM environment. Ethernet, X.25, SNA, 2780/3780, 3270 emulation, and Ultrix-32, a version of Unix, are available on DEC's VAX computers. "In fact," explains Fred Baumann, manager of Laboratory Data Systems Operations at Varian, "DEC and Intel were the first two companies that proposed to support Xerox's Ethernet. It certainly looks
like a good standard for the lab environment." Ethernet will be featured at DEC's booth at this year's Pittsburgh Conference, says Baumann. "The reason we need standard networks," Baumann continues, "is for higher speed data communications and resource sharing. In addition, it's a lot easier to wire up your lab if you use a network rather than point-topoint cabling. In fact, one of the real intentions of Xerox when they developed Ethernet was to make installing a work station as easy as installing a telephone—you just plug your terminal into a wall socket." The Hewlett-Packard Company, which carries a line of instruments, computers, and software for analytical chemistry similar to those offered by Varian and Perkin-Elmer, is also moving in the direction of greater standardization. According to Bob Board, Hewlett-Packard's Analytical Products Group engineering manager, "We are moving in the direction of being able to communicate with other people's computers and processors, including IBM's and DEC's. We also have research under way to explore how we're going to use Unix and Ethernet." Computers and analytical instruments manufactured by IBM Instruments Inc., a subsidiary of IBM, are also compatible with many developing industry standards. The company announced last year, for instance, that it intends to provide a Xenix operating system for its Computer System 9000. Xenix, a product of Microsoft Corporation, is a licensed version of Unix. IBM Instruments' adherence to industry standards is hardly surprising, since its parent company helped establish many of these standards through the tremendous influence it wields in the computer marketplace. IBM has not yet announced whether or not it will go with Ethernet as a local networking standard, however. Neutral Data Format
Responding to Perkin-Elmer's recent Everyware announcement, Ray Dessy, professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and contributing editor for ANALYTICAL C H E M I S T R Y ' S A/C INTERFACE fea-
T h e a n a l y t i c a l l a b o r a t o r y of t h e f u t u r e w i l l i n c l u d e a n e t w o r k of i n s t r u m e n t s a n d computers The superminicomputer contains LIMS software and the data base for the entire laboratory. Through gateways, the local network can be hooked up to external resources, including commercial data bases and the corporate computer. Microcomputers connected to the supermini collect data from various instruments, produce reports, and send information back to the LIMS for archiving. The manager's station is a computer used to generate reports, to store local programs and data, and to search the LIMS data base for information; the programmer's station is used for software development; and a graphics station is used to create graphical displays. Adapted from Perkin-Elmer company literature, with permission
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ture, said, "Perkin-Elmer's move toward enhanced compatibility in its Everyware announcement is to be encouraged. This turnabout indicates that they've recognized the positive survival characteristics of sharing standards and protocols with other people." Dessy adds, however, that different brands of instruments cannot be tied
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harmoniously into networks until a consensus is reached on a neutral data format, a detailed specification for en coding digital information in scientific instruments. "Varian intends to re lease such a protocol," says Dessy. " T h e y are willing t o share t h a t with the world. Other analytical instrument vendors will have access t o t h a t and might copy it, merely because they could then be competitive in an envi ronment where there was a D E C com puter." T h e importance of the neutral d a t a format, Varian's B a u m a n n explains, is t h a t it makes it possible t o present the d a t a in a way t h a t is instrument non specific. "Applications programs can then pick up t h a t d a t a and do trans formations on it without having t o worry whether it came from a Varian, a Perkin-Elmer, or a Hewlett-Packard chromatograph. This will be a pub lished format, and we're encouraging other vendors to interface their instru ments and software houses to write applications software on t h e basis of this format." Barnard of Perkin-Elmer also feels t h a t a neutral d a t a format is needed: "Perkin-Elmer is actively engaged in defining standard data formats for an alytical instrumentation. It is, in fact, a complex task." According t o Board, t h e difficulty in defining a neutral d a t a format arises because of the wide differences among instrumental techniques. "Obviously," he explains, " t h e d a t a format one chooses for a gas chromatograph is probably quite different from t h e data format one would choose for an atomic absorption spectrometer." Board says t h a t "Hewlett-Packard is interested in seeing analytical industry standards on d a t a format. T h e industry could really use some movement in t h a t di rection." Because it is so difficult for repre sentatives from different companies to sit down together and discuss stan dardization protocols, Board suggests: "An organization like the Scientific Apparatus Makers Association might provide a mechanism for getting man ufacturers together t o establish a com mon d a t a storage format and net working protocols." T h e goal of all these efforts is an open system implementation t h a t will enable different companies' products to interact synergistically in t h e labo ratory of t h e future. " I certainly hope we can bring that about," says Board, "because looking a t t h e whole thing from t h e analytical chemist's point of view, that's t h e most efficient way of getting analytical chemistry done." Sluart A. Borman
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