The invention provides a surgical system and a cassette (10), the cassette having a means for automatically identifying unique information specific to an individual cassette which may affect operation of the surgical system, when the cassette is received in a surgical console (100). Suitable methods for identification include bar coding (20) or Radio Frequency Identification ("RFID") (30). Cassette information that may be encoded include features such as lot number, but also recorded fluidic performance characteristics including aspiration/irrigation pressure sensor (40/50) calibration data, peristaltic pump (60) flow data, and any other data captured during testing of the cassette at manufacture.
