SIROTEM Prototype

Description

Shown is the original, sole prototype of the SIROTEM series of TEM equipment held in the ASEG historic instrument collection. Developed from 1972 in the Mineral Physics division of the CSIRO, it led to the design of three ever-improved models of SIROTEM in the next 30 years. It was the first geophysical instrument in Australia to incorporate a microprocessor which, utilising originally, the software instruction set of the PDP-8 computer, enabled digital manipulation of data in the field. The available memory then was about 6 kilobytes. The total weight of the instrument was 8 kg, easily portable by one person. From right to left, the modules shown are: Tx-Rx (transmitter-receiver), Power, ADC (analogue-to-digital), MPU (microprocessor unit), and Printer for recording the transient response.