During the last decade, there has been a significant increase in the use of computers in biomedical research. In particular, the use of these instruments in experimental control, as well as in the acquisition and storage of experimental data, has become universal. The current capacity of these machines enables the precise manipulation of many experimental variables and allows for very fast acquisition of data. In this article, we discuss the fundamentals of small personal computers and its use in experimental control and data acquisition. Further, we discuss technical aspects related to the management of measurement instrument s control and their technical limitations. Electrical recordings from the cerebral cortex are used as examples to illustrate the different aspect included in this article (Rev Méd Chile 2001; 129: 1085-92).