A high-speed system was designed and built to acquire time, temperature and load data from experiments in the cam plastometer. The cam plastometer is a mechanical testing machine which measures a fundamental property of non-brittle materials, namely their resistance to compressive deformation, during such deformation at constant true-strain rates. Early versions of the machine operated at comparatively low strain rates. The machine was constantly improved until it now operates over a wide range of true (logarithmic) strain rates, from 0.05 to greater than 200 s^-1. This range of rates requires the versatile, high-speed data acquisition system described in this paper. Operation of the cam plastometer is briefly described; then the sequence of acquiring data during an experiment, of storing these data in a ferrite-core memory, and of subsequently retrieving them for computer processing is given. Operation of the circuits which control input to, and output from, the memory is set forth in detail.