International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / With recent improvements in data acquisition technology, it is now possible to use an FTI data acquisition system to measure analog signals with a total error from all sources of less than 0.05% - over an extended temperature range - and at high sample rates. This accuracy is better than one count of an old 10-bit system and includes non-linearities, initial errors (in gain, offset and excitation) and drift errors, simplifying the task of interpreting data acquisition system performance specifications. This paper looks at some practical steps taken to achieve this accuracy, from a hardware design and signal processing perspective. This leads to a discussion of implications for the FTI system designer, including: sensor and wiring specifications, sample rate, filtering specifications, and a discussion of implications for the data processing engineers.