A computer system was developed at NIH, NCI, to add data acquisition, storage, and processing capability to two different flow microfluorometer/cell separators (FMF). Data can be collected from either or both cell separators while previously collected data are being simultaneously processed. Measured cell parameters can be accumulated in the computer memory as arrays of cell counts over a range of intensities or stored as raw data in a list mode on magnetic tape. The computer system hardware includes a refresh display, two disks, industry standard magnetic tape, 32K core, an incremental plotter, a link to the central facility, and links to the FMFs. For convenience in program development and to give direct access to additional data analysis resources, a direct 1200 baud link is available to a Central Facility PDP-10. Programs have been developed to display the data in two dimensions and to create three-dimensional projections which can be rotated. Two-dimensional contour maps at user-selected thresholds are also available. A plot of any projection on the CRT-Display is available when requested. Integration of selected curve segments and statistics describing peaks are a part of the package of routines selected via a menu scheme at the terminal. The various data presentations provide the researchers using the FMF with a poweful analytical tool to assist them in data interpretations. A significant increase in instrument productivity in terms of number of samples processes has occurred because of the utility of on-line data capture and data processing.

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