16 bit a d converter provides a high level of dynamic range and low end bit resolution the digital signal output from a d converter 304 may be processed by a framing circuit 306 which may be configured to store data produced during an hrtm process in a zone 1 data buffer 308 and store data produced during a pcr process in a zone 2 data buffer 310 a programmable data processor 312 may be programmed to process data in buffers 310 and 312 to among other things determine and record the intensity of the fluorescence from samples that undergo the pcr and hrtm processing as is well known in the art of imaging image sensor 108 may have an array of pixels referring now to fig4 fig4 shows an exemplary pixel array 400 for the sake of clarity pixel array 400 includes only 400 pixels however it is well understood that the pixel array of image sensor 108 may have over 1 million pixels in at least one embodiment image sensor 108 lens 140 and chip 102 are arranged so that at least a significant portion of each channel of chip 102 is within the field of view of the pixel array 400 of image sensor 108 also in at least one exemplary embodiment the image sensor 108 has the ability to read out a predefined portion or u201c window u201d of the pixel array this is known as windowing fig4 shows an example window 402 which consists of pixels 433 434 443 and 444 as is well known in the art image sensor 108 may have the ability to read out only the pixels that make up window 402 i e to obtain image data from only those pixels.