Commonly, PCs are used as controlers for laboratory equipment. While this appears to save money by allowing many devices to be controlled by a single PC, this model has many intrinsic flaws:

• only one user can run one device at a time
• devices can only be run from an single PC
• device drivers frequently conflict with each other
• hardware incompatibilities between devices
• control of the device from the PC affects performance of other tasks.
•  changes in hardware configuration may be incompatible with device operation
• if the PC is out of order, for any reason, devices can't be used

• Plant Growth Chamber- This growth chamber uses a dedicated PC, replete with keyboard, monitor, disk drive, and all the hardware and software to operate a complete personal computer, adding to the cost, size, power consumption and complexity of an already expensive piece of equipment.