Patent ID: 6931358

Claim:
A method of processing instrument data received by a multiple channel quantizer, comprising: receiving instrument measurement data on a plurality of channels of the quantizer, wherein the instrument measurement data is received from signals on the plurality of channels transmitted from a respective plurality of instruments, wherein the quantizer includes an additional channel which is free from instrument data; generating predicted instrument measurements to be received from the plurality of channels of the quantizer comprising the steps: (a) converting the instrument signals received to integrated quantizer measurements using a scale factor; (b) determining incremental integrated quantizer measurements from a difference between integrated quantizer measurements from the current measurement period and a previous measurement period, wherein the present integrated quantizer measurements are adjusted to account for resets which have been applied to the respective channel; c) converting the incremental integrated quantizer measurements to incremental signals; and (d) extrapolating the instrument signals received using the incremental signals to generate the predicted instrument measurements; sorting the predicted instrument measurements to determine a prioritization order for applying resets to channels to keep the channel signals beneath a saturation threshold, wherein resets are precise amounts of charge applied by current sources connected to the quantizer for raising or lowering a value of the signal appearing on the channel accordingly; and applying resets to the respective channels of the quantizer based on the determined prioritization order to keep the data channels below a saturation threshold.