This is an old revision of the document!
Table of Contents
Computer Requirements
Acquisition
The main constraints is sufficiently fast disk write speed to handle the camera data. Worst-case is 100 fps with full frame, or 800 MB/s (only one camera is used at a time). Usually this is solved by using SSDs in RAID0 configuration (e.g. 4 SSDs in RAID0 can achieve <1 GB/s). If you aren't using full frame or fastest imaging speed this requirement is relaxed.
Data Analysis
Ideally get a computer with GPU/graphics card because some of the data analysis software can take advantage of it to speed the computation. However, this is a nascent area and depends on software support; many developments in data analysis are forthcoming so it's hard to say exactly what will be the best in the long run. Having lots of RAM also helps the analysis so that the entire dataset can be held in active memory.
Specific suggestions
ASI has successfully used Dell Precision T3600 with 8-core Xeon CPU, 4x SSDs in RAID0, 64 GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro K4200, and enough PCIe slots (2 camera framegrabber cards, graphics card, and RAID controller).
