So you want to control an oven or autoclave with your laptop and log temperature data at the same time, right?
What you are looking for is:
1. hardware to read temperature sensors and at the same time switch the heat (and maybe a few other things like fans, valves etc.) on and off and some kind of software which runs on your computer which allows you to change settings and log the data?
or alternatively
2. a black box which does all that for you, and which can be accessed via a web interface or serial connection for up- and downloading data and settings.
This is industrial territory and usually pretty pricey.
http://www.jumo.de/products/control/electronic/program-controller/703571/jumo-dicon-touch---two-channel-process-and-program-controller-with-paperless-recorder-and-touchscreen-703571.html?parentId=3596http://www.jumo.de/products/control/electronic/3596/program-controller.html?parentId=I have worked with this and similar equipment in the past, works fine but isn't cheap!
At the university we used hardware from National Instruments (www.ni.com) which provides the inputs and outputs to the computer, and LabVIEW, a graphical programming language which allows you to produce virtual instrumentation and controllers with a few clicks of your mouse. This is regarded by many to be the industry standard in data acquisition and control, it can literally be used to run an entire chemical plant from a computer. That's what you will find in NASA and CERN laboratories. Unfortunately again very pricey, unless you get their academic discounts or someone else pays for it
http://www.ni.com/labview/The Labjack hardware seems to be a more affordable alternative to the NI hardware, but I don't know about the software side, seems like you have to write your own or use things like LabVIEW.
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If you aren't scared of tinkering with electronics you can actually make your own controller. I am currently in the process of building exactly what I think you want. I didn't come up with the idea myself, I found several open source projects for fermentation, sous-vide cooking and other PID controllers on the web which I am trying to convert into a suitable controller for a curing oven, and once it works into an autoclave controller. At the moment the temperature sensors only work up to about 110°C, too low for an autoclave. They will eventually need to be replaced with thermocouples or PT100 sensors.
These projects usually employ an Arduino which is a microcontroller board available from 12 to 25€ or a Raspberry Pi, a credit card sized computer running linux and which costs about 35€, or both for more robustness. The Pi computer can either be accessed directly by connecting a monitor, keyboard and mouse to the Pi, or you can access its web interface with a browser on your mobile phone, smart TV, tablet or regular computer to change different settings, PID control parameters, temperature setpoints, ramp rates and dwell times, and download logged data via ethernet or WLAN or USB/serial.
A simple PID controller with LCD which continuously sends measured data to your computer over USB can be built for about 40€, if you want all the functionality and a nice case you will end up paying about 150€ for the controller hardware. The software is free but it might require some changes.
This is the controller I'm currently working on:
I will post more details at a later date.