  The Gatan K2 IS direct electron detector (Gatan Inc., 2018), which was
introduced in 2014, marked a watershed moment in the development of cameras for
transmission electron microscopy (TEM) (Pan & Czarnik, 2016). Its pixel
frequency, i.e. the number of data points (pixels) recorded per second, was two
orders of magnitude higher than the fastest cameras available only five years
before. Starting from 2009, the data rate of TEM cameras has outpaced the
development of network, mass storage and memory bandwidth by almost two orders
of magnitude. Consequently, solutions based on personal computers (PCs) that
were adequate until then are no longer able to handle the resulting data rates.
Instead, tailored high-performance setups are necessary. Similar developments
have occurred for advanced X-ray sources such as the European XFEL, requiring
special information technology (IT) systems for data handling (Sauter, Hattne,
Grosse-Kunstleve, & Echols, 2013) (Fangohr, et al., 2018). Information and
detector technology are currently under rapid development and involve
disruptive technological innovations. This chapter briefly reviews the
technological developments of the past 20 years, presents a snapshot of the
current situation at the beginning of 2019 with many practical considerations,
and looks forward to future developments.
