Computer control technology - past, present and probable future

This survey paper reviews the field of computer control from its inception in the late 1950s to the present and note the trends in hardware, software and applications, Based on this it projects present trends in these areas to predict the foreseeable fu ture of the field. In particular the present very strong trends toward distributed and hierarchical control systems based on microprocessors and recent developments in communications techniques is followed. In the software area the probable effect of the new ADA language is discussed along with the developments in specific problem and applications oriented languages.