Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2019
An IBM 1800 time-sharing system is used in our X-ray laboratory to control a four-circle diffractometer for structure research, several powder diffractometers, a pole-figure goniometer and a microdensitometer along with other instruments outside the diffraction area. A survey of the computer system is given and the hardware necessary to automate the diffractometers is discussed. The computer supervision ranges from simple data-logging with a minimum of control to complete control of all actions depending on the diffractometer and the requirements of the experiment. Also described is the use of the computer to process the data and to perform background jobs.