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Vishay Measurements Group
Interactive Guide
Technical Articles
Digital Signal Processing
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In the simplest of terms, the throughput rate is little more than an indication of how much digital data a specific combination of hardware and software can acquire per unit of time. At the instrumentation level, it is primarily controlled by the number of analog-to-digital converters (ADC's) being used in the system, and the rate at which the analog signals being measured can be sampled and digitized. The useful throughput rate of the overall data acquisition system, however, is typically much slower because of such things as (1) the need for oversampling to eliminate aliasing in dynamic signals, (2) the presence of bottlenecks in the communications link between instrumentation and computer hardware, and (3) limitations in the rate at which software can acquire, reduce, store, and/or present the digital data. A calculation of throughput also requires knowledge of how the instrumentation hardware acquires the data. The simplest approach is to sequentially sample each data channel in the system at fixed intervals. System 4000, the original Vishay Measurements Group data system, acquires data in this fashion, using a single ADC at a throughput rate of 25 or 30 samples per second (depending upon the frequency of the mains power). 
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