A multi-drop bus system and a method for operating such a system. When the strip-shaped emitter electrode is coupled to a voltage supply, current or an electrical charge at the emission edge ionizes the air and generates corona discharge, resulting in ion production. Furthermore, non-native data mining viewers may also be seamlessly integrated into the system for displaying the results of one or more algorithms including those provided by third parties as well as those built-in. The coprocessor 2 executes the processing when the processing is executable by the coprocessor 2 but leaves execution of the processing to the host processor 1 when the processing is not executable by the coprocessor 2. A mechanically or remotely actuated trigger and actuating mechanism is connected to a weight release mechanism at the top of the column. At least a part of the embossments differ from the remaining embossments in their size.