The latest family of Tektronix digital phosphor oscilloscopes speeds up the debugging of new designs, especially embedded systems, by making it easier to view, navigate, and analyze large amounts of acquired waveform data. To do that, the four DPO4000 scopes feature serial triggering, protocol decode capability, USB plug-and-play PC connectivity, a 10.4-in. XGA display, and Wave Inspector, Tektronix's new front-panel control for intuitive zooming and panning of data.
A standard 10-Mpoint waveform memory-on all channels lets the scopes capture big chunks of data. Bandwidths run from 350 MHz on the two-channel DPO4032 and four-channel DPO4034 to 500 MHz for the DPO4054 and 1 GHz for the DPO4104 (both four-channel units). The DPO4104 offers 5-Gsample/s sampling on all channels, while the other models sample at 2.5 Gsamples/s on all channels. All this comes in a very compact package that's only 5.4 in. deep and 11 lb. The TekVPI probe interface fosters communication between the scopes and TekVPI probes.
Wave Inspector simplifies the extraction of useful information from the acquired data. A dedicated, two-tier front-panel knob controls zooming and panning. A play/ pause feature with adjustable speed lets users automatically scroll the waveform across the screen to look for events of interest. Also, Wave Inspector can automatically search through an acquisition and mark all occurrences of a user-specified event.
Scope-to-PC connectivity is based on USB Test & Measurement Class through National Instruments' SignalExpress Tektronix Edition (see the figure). The software comes with the scopes (see "Control, Analysis Software Connects Instruments To PCs Via USB," see article 12149). Pricing ranges from $7000 for the DPO4032 to $14,000 for the DPO4104.
Tektronix Inc.
www.tektronix.com