Binary release July 22, 2026
Release Notes
This release focuses on improving performance for high-channel-count recordings. As 1000+ channel probes (e.g. Neuropixels 2.0 Quad Base) become more widely adopted, the GUI needs to support real-time visualization and recording with minimal overhead. v1.1 includes a number of key optimizations that are expected to improve performance across all platforms. In addition, updates to the LFP Viewer and the core UI will make the data display more flexible.
Note: Existing Acquisition Board users with a Gen 2 or Gen 3 board will need to update to Acquisition Board plugin v2.0 after upgrading the GUI. This plugin update also requires a gateware update. See the gateware update page for instructions: https://open-ephys.github.io/acq-board-docs/User-Manual/Gateware-Update.html
Record Node
- Added SIMD operations to accelerate float-to-integer conversion, substantially reducing the likelihood of record buffer overflows
- Added per-stream DataQueues and batch copying to reduce Record Node processing time
- Improved disk space monitoring to prevent rapidly fluctuating estimates from prematurely stopping recordings
LFP Viewer
- Optimized rendering performance when visualizing 1000+ channels
- Added an option to filter and common-average-reference data before display
- Added display range marker values to single-channel view
- Improved timescale label formatting in triggered display mode
- Reduced the minimum channel height to 2 px
- Added an option to display channel depth instead of channel name
- Improved rendering of low-sample-rate data by interpolating between samples and fixed time axis drift, thanks to @roberttoth02
Spike Detector
- Optimized spike serialization by reusing a persistent buffer
Synchronization
- Added support for automatic synchronization of streams that receive a Harp clock input. This requires a slowed-down (1000 bps) Harp clock signal from the Behavior Board or White Rabbit. Streams are synchronized directly to the Harp clock rather than to each other.
- Improved Event Translator performance, enabling high-resolution copying of event times across streams
- Updated hardware-synced streams so that all timestamps are written, rather than interpolating between the first timestamp in each buffer
UI Updates
- Added an option to split the Data Viewport horizontally
- Added a new searchable, table-based layout for the Plugin Installer
- Added more recent FTDI driver to the Windows installer (required to use the latest Acquisition Board plugin)
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a Plugin Installer bug on Windows that prevented plugin installation when the user account name included special characters.
