Patent ID: 9043162
Filing Date: 2015-05-26
Classification: H01J,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of mass-spectrometer data acquisition using a mass spectrometer apparatus which includes an ion source, an ion detector, and a data acquisition engine communicating with a computer system; the method comprising: receiving, by the acquisition engine, data from the ion detector; detecting intensity peaks in the received data; for the detected peaks, generating, by the acquisition engine, data containing time and intensity information in respect of the peaks; and communicating the data containing time and intensity information to the computer system; wherein the data from the acquisition engine is passed to a data throughput optimization module which includes a buffer that buffers, formats and packetizes received data and communicates the packetized data to a protocol stack; and the protocol stack communicates the packetized data to a network interface that communicates with the computer system; and wherein the buffer comprises a number of segments each defined by a block of memory configured as a plurality of portions of a predetermined number of bits, at least one reserved header portion of each segment being reserved for a header word containing header information in respect of the contents of the segment; data chunks containing the time and intensity information are streamed into a first one of the segments of the buffer, each chunk occupying one of the portions of the segment, and, when said first one of the segments is full, with the exception of the at least one reserved header portion, subsequent data chunks are streamed into a next segment of the buffer, header information in respect of the contents of said first one of the segments is written into the at least one reserved header portion of said first one of the segments so as to create a packet of data in said first one of the segments, and the packet of data in said first one of the segments, including the header information, is transferred to the protocol stack.