About LABTECH

LABTECH was an important designer and manufacturer of real-time data acquisition, display, analysis, and process control software.  The company specialized in scientific, engineering, manufacturing, and industrial applications software for personal computers and workstations. Customers  highlight that its products allow them to be up and running very quickly, with no need to program. With over twenty years of experience in this market, and over 100,000 users,  LABTECH software has proven to be the standard for ease of use measurement and control.

In 2004 the LABTECH Software products were sold to Measurement Computing. Measurement Computing discontinued the LABTECH product offerings because of its inability to support and develop the product.

LABTECH products can be found in Fortune 500 companies and in small corporations.  Customers for LABTECH products cover a broad range of markets, including chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, medical, scientific, and educational. Applications of the company's products range from the research laboratory to the product test site to the factory floor.

LABTECH committed to producing software that a customer could purchase and use immediately, with minimal training and maximum effectiveness. The company was also committed to the development of open systems. Its software runs on standard, low-cost  PCs, and supports the widest variety of standard, low-cost I/O hardware.

LABTECH was founded in 1981 by Dr. Frederick A. Putnam, a former faculty member  at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Putnam applied his extensive experience with computer systems, and created the company based on his belief that microcomputers  should serve as the foundation for automated data acquisition and analysis in the laboratory.

Initially, LABTECH focused on developing hardware/software systems for data  acquisition. Three years later the company discontinued its efforts in hardware production to concentrate on its greatest strength -- software development for the use and integration of personal computers in the laboratory environment. The company then marketed its LABTECH NOTEBOOK software to become the industry standard, on the IBM PC platform.

In May of 1984, LABTECH delivered the first NOTEBOOK packages for the IBM PC. Development of LABTECH NOTEBOOK continued with the many feature additions, such as process control functions, real-time thermocouple linearization, and fast Fourier transforms.

LABTECH developed new marketing channels for LABTECH products and services by  adding authorized LABTECH dealers experienced in engineering and scientific markets, while expanding relationships with existing hardware manufacturers.

In 1988, LABTECH began developing products to support industrial applications and introduced two new products. LABTECH CONTROL, an industrial process monitoring and control software package, provides flexibility in monitoring or controlling a process or a production test. CONTROL-FT was the first PC-based fault tolerant software. In the same year, LABTECH began developing its software for additional hardware and software platforms.

The C-Icon Development Kit was also introduced in 1992. Supporting an open-systems message, the C-Icon product allows users and systems integrators to add their own C programs to NOTEBOOK and CONTROL. Also, in 1992, the Driver ToolKit was  introduced. The toolkit is used to write TSR drivers in C to support the I/O hardware not currently supported by LABTECH software. Both the C-Icon Development Kit and the Driver ToolKit are now a standard part of LABTECH's higher- end products.

In 1993, LABTECH introduced Realtime VISION, a client/server operator interface that graphically displays and controls data in real time. VISION's design allows it to be linked to any of the widely available DDE servers for PLCs and other devices, as well as to LABTECH's popular NOTEBOOK and CONTROL products.

LABTECH announced LT-SPEEDWAY, the industry standard for real-time interprocess communication on Microsoft Windows. LABTECH introduced NOTEBOOK and  NOTEBOOKpro, the best data acquisition, storage and display software available on Windows.

LABTECH has built the largest complement of hardware interface drivers in the industry,  with support for more than 50 hardware manufacturers.

LABTECH's product line included the following:

LABTECH NOTEBOOK and LABTECH NOTEBOOKpro

 LABTECH CONTROL and LABTECH CONTROLpro

LABTECH Realtime VISIONpro