Archive Technology

Instrumentation

• Cascade Impactor - A cascade impactor measures the reach range of a particulate substance as it moves through an opening with the use of aerosol. Cascade impactors are strictly measurement-related devices. In addition to measuring the range of substances moved through an opening by aerosol, the impactor can also be used to determine the particle size of the distributed substance.
  • AMAD - Activity Median Aerodynamic Diameter

General Software

• RoeLee - Software which is a Histopathology and Necropsy system. There are references to this system in the Optical Archives. It is unclear what data this software was specifically concerned with storing, much less whether we actually have the data or the corresponding software. However, since there are mentions of lab notebooks, if it were the case that lab notebooks were being stored in an electronic form, this would likely be of great interest.
  
• Papyrus - Software: A reference database / Bibliography program whose main function is to store and retrieve bibliographic references in any format. "This particular software is necessary for compatibility with collaborators in Europe and Japan." See PAP.MEM institutional context and PAPR.DOC for general documentation.
  
• EasyCASE - Evergreen CASE Tools.
  • Version 1.7 (DOS) 2/28/1990 appears available online
  • EasyCASE Plus Version 3.1 (DOS) appears available online with some effort
  • EasyCASE v4.20 (Windows) appears to be available at ./map-HRAD56p1/ECWIN/
  • File extensions:
    • .TRG Transformation Graph
    • .DFD Data Flow Diagram
    • .STD State Transition Diagram
    • .STC Structure Chart
    • .ERD Entity Relationship Diagram
    • .DSD Data Structure Diagram
• SNOOPY - Data management tool. In the late 1960's and early 1970's the manual records were converted to a punched card batch updated, magnetic taped based computer system. This system was a collection of in house FORTRAN programs known as SNOOPY; it was implemented on a CDC CYBER mainframe computer and converted to a UNIVAC in 1972. The idea was to put all the information about the dogs in one location. Updating the records was still slow, but retrievals about single animals was efficient. It was still difficult to compare information about groups of animals unless specific computer programs were written for each retrieval request. The integrity and legibility of the records was greatly improved over the clinical file system. The storage of some types of information, i.e., pathologist's observations, were
• Datatrieve - In 1977, a PDP 11/70 minicomputer was obtained for biometrics applications and in 1978 DATATRIEVE, a commercially developed interactive query language, was purchased.
• NEWCAS - An Interactive Computer Program for Particle Size Analysis. PNL-2405, Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Richland, WA.
• Conceptual Software / DBMS/COPY - A piece of software used to export data from various database/statistical software formats. Version 2.0 (October 23, 1989) appears to have been used to translate files generated by LOTUS 123, DBASE3, and SYSTAT.

Backup Software, Physical Media

Platter - Seemingly the name that was used to describe a single-side of the MO media. A platter-code would be the label of such a volume
9-track - A type of reel-to-reel magnetic tape media. We have (so far) discovered two of these tapes, however, digitization efforts are deferred as they are likely already contained within the optical HRAD archive which has been made available on the NU Radonc disk store.
Alphatronix - Possibly an old backup system or software. References to it in the MO archives are present. Examine EODDIR, EO.SYS, EOVERIFY.EXE
XCOPY - An old DOS command often used to make backups / archives. Commonly used when it is necessary to work with entire directories.
MO - Magneto Optical: A type of media which encased in plastic which on the inside looks like a compact disc. Rewriteable.
PCT - Pc Tools. Old DOS software but relevant because compressed files exist which utilized Central Point Backup

Database Technology

• Paradox - A relational database used by the archives in the past. One of many, but this one is particularly crucial...
  • Paradox had a DOS as well as a Windows Version. The move to the Windows version broke compatibility with Applications written for the DOS version as this used the PAL language, and Windows necessitated a switch to ObjectPAL.
  • .PX - Primary Index file used by Paradox
  • .MB - A Blob file used by Paradox<
  • .FAM - Family file, primarily DOS
  • .VAL - Validity checks and referential-integrity information. Contains referential integrity, default values, ... i.a. all validity features and checks.
  • .TV - Stands for Table View properties, and contains the way you want to see the table when in DBD.
  • .DM - Data Model file used by Paradox
  • .PX .X* .Y* - Index Files used by Paradox
  • .SC - PAL language keyboard script.
  • .SSL - Script Source (Only for Paradox for Windows)
• Oracle - A relational database used by the archives in the past. One of many.
• dBase - A database used by the archives in the past. One of many. Whether one considers it a relational database can be questioned.
• VAX - A likely very heavy computer. These likely used 9-track reel-to-reel tapes which were later converted/archived to the optical disk store.
• DJ42 - Data Junction v4.2 -
• FOCUS - FOCUS Hierarchical Database. Not too much is known here, however, this seems to use files with an .FTM file extension. The raw files from ITRI, which were donated on December 11-15, 1992, were of this format.