Streaming

Fast recording and streaming to disk with Continuous or ECR mode (Event Controlled Recording) creates files with the extension *.bdf (binary data file). These files can be opened and handled with TranAX Data Acquisition Software and saved later in Elsys's standard *.tpc5 file format.

MHz vs. MS/s and MS vs. MB

One sample requires 2 Byte of data in RAM or on disk. Recording speed or sample rate is defined either in MHz or MS/s.

1MHz = 1MS/s = 1 million samples (1 MS) per second. 1MS requires 2MB data in RAM or on disk.

Calculate the amount of data and bandwidth

For streaming application, there are mostly multiple channels and faster sampling rates.

Data throughput[MB/s] = Number of channels * Sampling rate[MS/s] * 2

Example

The Signals of 3x TPCE-1016-4S modules with 10MS/s sample rate should be recorded directly to disk. In total 12 channels with 10MHz (or MS/s) sample rate.

Data throughput[MB/s] = 12 * 10MS/s x 2 = 240MB/s

This will genereate an amount of 240MB of data per second!

State of the art computer systems with build in SATA SSD drives can handle 400MB/s or even higher transfer rates. To reach a higher bandwidth, SSDs in RAID or M.2 or PCIe interfaces are recommended.