TMS
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Page 24
Medical Devices Computer Architecture: Part 1-Overview
By Alberto Vasquez.
Learning Objectives:
In this article you will:
Be able to describe basic computer architecture.
Be able to describe generic medical device functional block diagram
Be able to identify similarities between computer and modern medical
device architecture
Fig 1. The Personal Computer
In this article, you will read about the functional aspects of an electronic medical device in comparison to a typical computer. This first article, entitled ―Overview‖ is not meant to provide any new information, but a
different perspective on familiar information. A compare and contrast will
be made between a common medical device and computer to see where
their architecture may overlap.
A computer can be broken into its hardware and software components. Figure 1 shows the type of computer you find at your office. There
are several I/O devices labeled; headphone, microphone, keyboard,
mouse, speakers, and the display. Also, with today’s computer mother
boards, there exist expansion slots that allow you to either expand or upgrade the capabilities of your PC like, TV tuner cards, faster video cards,
or security device cards. In a modern electronic medical device, not running from a PC, we can also divide it into its hardware and firmware.
Firmware, in a loose definition, is the program stored in programmable
microchips, unlike software which is also known as application software.
From figure 2, we see that computer architecture overlaps both the hardware and software designs. Further to the right of the design and we fall
into human factors i.e.; application & user design.…(Continued on next
page)
Fig 2. Architecture: From electronics, through the architect, to the user.