A TCP/IP based thin wire network was used to connect several different computers in our flow cytometry program. Data is collected from a FACScan on a Hewlett Packard 9000 series 300 microcomputer which has an HP98643A ethernet card and Fusion network software (Network Research Corporation). This software requires upgrading the Hewlett Packard Pascall-Workstation OS from version 3.1 to 3.22. The second computer is a MicroVaxII GPX with DELQA network module and TCI/IP Process Software (Process Software Corporation). Data files can now be easily transferred from the HP9000 for faster analysis on the MicroVax. However, currently available Consort 40 software for the FAX does not always properly read Concert 30 data files. Two other computers on the network are Macintosh II's with a Kinetics Inc. ethernet card. The network software used on the Macs was originally developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (Univ. of Illinois) and modified by Brigham Young University to provide FTP server and client operation. We currently use generic graphing programs to print graphs from data files which have been processed on the HP9000. Future plans include development of hybrid data analysis programs that take advantage of the Macintosh graphics environment and VAX number processing.
