Nowadays, designers have to perform
more and more embedded
testing and digital debugging in
addition to their other typical work. So,
Tektronix designed its affordable MSO
4000 series of oscilloscopes to address
the ever-increasing complexity in the
products that engineers design—as well
as their need to do things faster.
This small but fully featured mixed-signal
oscilloscope (MSO) targets engineers
who design, test, and debug embedded
controller products with multiple serial
interfaces as well as related circuitry.
While it isn’t a fully featured logic analyzer,
it does incorporate impressive digital
signal test and analysis features that will
almost make you believe you don’t need
a logic analyzer.
Each of the four MSO 4000 models
provides 16 digital logic channels, giving
you more than enough inputs to test
almost anything you’re working on. They
also have four analog channels, except
the MSO 4032, which has two. The timing
resolution is 60.6 ps (16.5 Gsamples/s) on all digital channels.
The MSO 4034 and MSO 4032 have a
350-MHz bandwidth and a 2.5-Gbit/s
sampling rate. The MSO 4054 has a
500-MHz bandwidth with 2.5-Gbit/s
sampling rate. The high-end MSO 4104
has a 1-GHz bandwidth with a 5-Mbit/s
sampling rate (see the figure). Those
rates apply to all channels, which have a
maximum record length of 10M.
The 10.4-in., XGA format screen is easy
to get used to. You also can easily see all
20 channels clearly at one time. The digital
signals are displayed with green high,
blue low, and white rise/fall, making them
easier than ever to interpret.
With the scopes’ Wave Inspector, you
can search, pan, and zoom for waveforms.
It lets you identify glitches faster,
examine the details of any signal, and
manage and examine the long record
lengths more conveniently. This works on
the digital channels too. The scope can
display bus data as well as trigger and
search on specific data values as well.
The MSO 4104 offers optional support
for I2C, RS-232, SPI, and CAN. Also, it can
capture, decode, trigger on, and search for
specific codes. It displays the hex values
of words along with the pulses, speeding
up embedded troubleshooting.
The unique digital probe is designed
as two groups of eight color-coded probe
lines. Those color codes are duplicated
on the screen to help you identify which
line is which. Prices range from $8700
for the MSO 4032 to $17,200 for the
MSO 4104.
Tektronix Inc.
www.tektronix.com