8-GHz DSO With Pinpoint Triggering Ups Bus Signal Integrity

April 12, 2004

Ensuring signal integrity in very high-speed gigabit-per-second buses like PCI-Express, InfiniBand, and XAUI (extended attached unit interface) is the charge of Tektronix's ultra-high-performance 8-GHz digital-storage-oscilloscope (DSO) series with Pinpoint triggering and advanced probing. The scopes feature four channels of concurrent high-resolution waveform capture and a new differential probing solution using silicon-germanium (SiGe) ICs made on IBM's 0.18-µm 7HP process.

The TDS6000B DSO series consists of the 8-GHz TDS6804B and the 6-GHz TDS6604B. With the 6804B, the user can select either a 7-GHz analog bandwidth or an 8-GHz DSP-enhanced digital bandwidth via an on-screen menu. Each model includes 20-Gsample/s sampling on all four channels and up to 32 Mbytes of memory running concurrently on all four channels. This combination enables rise-time measurements down to 45 ps (20% to 80%) and the capture of 1.6-ms time windows at the full sampling rate.

Unique Pinpoint triggering uses a dual A and B triggering system that enables over 1400 trigger combinations. The two triggers can be mixed and qualified into almost any sequential logic combination. Pinpoint triggering provides ultra-low trigger jitter of less than 1.5 ps. It also captures glitches less than 200 ps wide.

Pricing for the now available TDS68-04B and TDS6604B begins at $74,990 and $64,990, respectively.

Tektronix Inc. www.tektronix.com (800) 426-2200, request code 2000

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About the Author

Roger Allan

Roger Allan is an electronics journalism veteran, and served as Electronic Design's Executive Editor for 15 of those years. He has covered just about every technology beat from semiconductors, components, packaging and power devices, to communications, test and measurement, automotive electronics, robotics, medical electronics, military electronics, robotics, and industrial electronics. His specialties include MEMS and nanoelectronics technologies. He is a contributor to the McGraw Hill Annual Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. He is also a Life Senior Member of the IEEE and holds a BSEE from New York University's School of Engineering and Science. Roger has worked for major electronics magazines besides Electronic Design, including the IEEE Spectrum, Electronics, EDN, Electronic Products, and the British New Scientist. He also has working experience in the electronics industry as a design engineer in filters, power supplies and control systems.

After his retirement from Electronic Design Magazine, He has been extensively contributing articles for Penton’s Electronic Design, Power Electronics Technology, Energy Efficiency and Technology (EE&T) and Microwaves RF Magazine, covering all of the aforementioned electronics segments as well as energy efficiency, harvesting and related technologies. He has also contributed articles to other electronics technology magazines worldwide.

He is a “jack of all trades and a master in leading-edge technologies” like MEMS, nanolectronics, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, military electronics, biometrics, implantable medical devices, and energy harvesting and related technologies.