Origin was first created for use solely with microcalorimeters manufactured by MicroCal Inc. (acquired by Malvern Instruments in 2014[4]) The software was used to graph the instruments data, and perform nonlinear curve fitting and parameter calculation.
Microcal Origin is designed by Microcal Software Inc., which is now known as OriginLab Corporation. It is a tool for graphing and data analysis that engineers and scientists can use. This application was originally developed for micro-calorimeters that are also created by the same company. This program is available in two types: the original version, and the newer version OriginPro. The difference between the two programs is that OriginPro has more advanced statistics as well as new features, such as Fourier Transform, and surface fitting.
As its original function, the new Origin is made for instrument data and graphing analysis. It is also created to conduct parameter calculation and non-linear curve fitting. For graphing and data analysis, it supports different types of 2D and 3D plots. It includes analysis of statistics and processing of signals.
Microcal Origin has a graphical user interface and is similar to a regular spreadsheet program. It has different columns and rows for placing data. However, a column formula is used rather than cell formulae.
Data to use with this application can be imported and exported in different file formats. These include Excel, ASCII text, and NetCDF. This tool also supports image formats when graphs are exported. Some of the image files supported are GIF and JPEG. Users can use a single file or more. It has batch analysis feature for multiple data files.
[It may be of interest to inspect how the fit would look like if we use the 'stored concentrations' from the original DAT-file exported by Origin: We'll find that the global parameters are virtually identical, but the fit looks 'noisy' - this is a result of the stored concentration values having significant round-off error.].
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