Have a look at National Instruments LAbView (and LAbWindows for you know
who's OS) software. The user can create pratically any "virtual instrument"
one wants. They also sell hardware (A->D converters etc) and will ship you
a demo CD of the software.

LabView has been around for years now, I think I saw it first around '86,
'87 (was it really demo'd on a Mac Plus? naw!).

I'm still lobbying at work to buy a full blow version of the software to
play with data aquisition and process control for my fermentors. Two of my
fermentors are Swiss made Chemaps. Currently analog measurements and
control are interfaced to a pc via a Chemap A-D, D-A converter unit. The pc
runs Genesis (by the Iconics) process control software with an user
interface made by Chemap. If you have doubts about the DM for VWs, then you
would probably faint at the SM (Swiss Method) as embodied by Chemap.

Alistair