Becker & Hickl versus Picoquant

Hello:

I'm starting to do some homework on designing a flexible TCSPC
instrument that will start out as a single beam system to measure
fluorescence lifetime, FRET, and FCS if possible. Eventually I would
like to add scanning via a stage or galvos and so will need to capture
XY position information. Will probably be using ti:sapphire as an
excitation source.

As far as I can tell, there are two leading hardware vendors for TCSPC
systems - Becker & Hickl and Picoquant. The major difference in their
implementation seems to be the difference in where and how the timing
information is stored. Becker & Hickl relies on PCI cards with ONBOARD
memory, while picoquant streams the information to system memory or
disk.

I wondering if there is anyone with experience using both systems or
someone who has recently researched both systems. Are there large areas
of overlap in the capability of their hardware? Are the software
drivers/APIs easy to use (LabVIEW VIs?)? Technical Support?

Finally. Are these guys the only game in town? Are there special Data
Acquistion cards availble with LabVIEW drivers that can accept NIM type
signals and are very very speedy?

Thanks,

-will

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