Flow cytometry signal processing and data acquisition with a personal computer using an RTI-800 multifunction A/D I/O board

The design and implementation of a data management system, consisting of a real-time data processing and a PC-based acquisition system, for measurement of flow cytometric data is described. The data processing system makes use of an erasable programmable logic device for implementation of dedicated control logic. The signal processing system is used for measuring the peak heights of 8 analog signals and simultaneous digital measurement of the time of flight. Four window discriminators are used for data selection and sorting applications. The data acquisition system is based on an MS-DOS PC with a slightly modified commerical A/D I/O board, which we used to measure 8 analog signals (12 bit A/D converted) and 32 bit digital information per event. Using an IBM compatible personal computer with an 8 MHz AT bus, the total system is capable of measuring about 10 000 events per second.