DPOs Employ Intuitive Learning To Raise Productivity Bar

March 15, 2004

Sporting an intuitive menu that accelerates the operator's learning curve, Tektronix's midrange TDS5000B series digital phosphor oscilloscopes (DPOs) are easy to use. Customization through MyScope and right-click menus simplify design...

Roger Allan

Users can get their work done more quickly and easily, lowering development costs and shortening time-to-market. These DPOs are available in a range of bandwidths, performance parameters, and prices (see the table).

"We found the new TDS5000B series to be the most intuitive oscilloscope we've used, and it easily has the greatest number of features for the price," says Shekar Gopalan, vice president of research and consulting at Frost & Sullivan.

The MyScope's drag-and-drop capability lets designers pull all of the oscilloscope features they use into a single half-screen control window. As a result, they can tailor the DPO to their particular style or measurement task. A virtually unlimited number of such windows can be created. Individual users of a shared TDS5000B can then have their own custom interfaces.

The DPOs take full advantage of Microsoft Windows' right-click and scroll-wheel mouse features. When pointing the cursor at an area of interest on the display, like a waveform displayed on channel 1, users can right-click the mouse to bring up a menu of possible controls. The displayed menu is for channel-1-related adjustments and measurements. Users can select and adjust these controls without the need to navigate the traditional menu operation.

Controls selected via a right mouse click automatically assign any associated parameters to the mouse scroll wheel for quick and easy adjustment. A press of the scroll wheel toggles between coarse and fine adjustments of the parameter's value, so users can quickly achieve the desired setting without their hand ever leaving the mouse. Right-click menus simplify things by providing shortcuts to the menu structure.

Six features—including a CD-RW drive and expanded PC memory—that were options for the previous-generation DPOs are standard on the TDS5000B family. The oscilloscopes are available now.

Tektronix Inc.www.tektronix.com (800) 426-2200, code 1303

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.