PROTOR12

Protor12 is a modular, open-source software platform designed for real-time data acquisition, processing, and visualization in scientific and engineering environments. It provides a core runtime, a plugin system, and built-in tools for data ingestion from sensors, calibration, filtering, analysis, and plotting. The architecture emphasizes extensibility and cross-platform compatibility, supporting Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Development and history: Protor12 was developed by the research collective ProtoTech Labs, with an initial release in 2019. The project follows an open development model, inviting community contributions and regular release cycles. Version 12 marks a major milestone with a refactor that introduced GPU-accelerated data processing and improved streaming guarantees.

Features: The platform features a plugin-based architecture, support for Python and C++ extensions, real-time data pipelines, low-latency streaming, and GPU-accelerated modules. It includes cross-platform GUI tooling, scriptable workflows, and data provenance and versioning to track transformations across a data lifecycle.

Applications: Protor12 is used in particle physics experiments, seismology networks, astrophysical data streams, and industrial process monitoring. It can integrate with common data formats such as HDF5, NetCDF, and CSV, and can connect to messaging systems like ZeroMQ and MQTT for data transport.

Reception: The platform has been praised for its flexibility and extensive plugin ecosystem, while some users note its complexity and the learning curve associated with its more advanced features and documentation.

See also: Data processing framework, Open-source scientific software.