input devices 28 which are located at each workstation are common to both the alarm distribution overview indicator subsystem 40 and the alarm view linker subsystem 50 it should further be noted that these subsystems share certain functional modules and information when integrated together into a system though each are described herein as separate subsystems these facts will become apparent from the description of each of these subsystems provided below it will be further appreciated by the skilled artisan that each of these subsystems could be utilized alone or in any desired combination to achieve a desired functional result in the following description a description of the operation of the alarm processing module 18 will be provided followed by a detailed description of each of the subsystems the alarm processing module 18 compares the sensor data received from the data acquisition system 14 to associated alarm setpoints and generates appropriate alarm status signals on the basis of the comparison the particular alarm status signal generated by the alarm processing module 18 will depend upon whether a datum exceeds a setpoint a new alarm condition or a datum that previously exceeded a setpoint is now below the setpoint a return to normal condition the alarm status signal.