The advantages of the Michelson interferometer were well-known, but considerable technical difficulties had to be overcome before a commercial instrument could be built. Also an electronic computer was needed to perform the required Fourier transform, and this only became practicable with the advent of mini-computers, such as the PDP-8, which became available in 1965. Digilab pioneered the world's first commercial FTIR spectrometer (Model FTS-14) in 1969[3] (Digilab FTIRs are now a part of Agilent technologies's molecular product line after it acquired spectroscopy business from Varian).[4][5]