With the MSO3000 mixed-signal oscilloscope (MSO) series from Tektronix Inc., designers can visualize and analyze analog, digital, and serial signals on a single instrument. These devices offer up to four analog and 16 digital channels, 100- to 500-MHz bandwidth, 5M record length, and a 2.5-Gsample/s analog sample rate for system debug.
The 16 digital channels are tightly integrated into the oscilloscope’s user interface, simplifying operation and making it possible to solve mixed-signal issues easily, according to Tektronix. The color-coded waveform display simplifies the viewing of digital waveforms, displaying ones in green and zeros in blue. This makes it easy to recognize the logic state of a signal without having to scroll to a transition, the company says.
Digital waveforms can be grouped and labeled to reduce setup time. The Tektronix MagniVu high-speed acquisition provides confidence when making critical timing measurements on digital waveforms with the acquisition of 10,000 points at up to 8.25 Gsamples/s (121.2-ps resolution), providing much finer timing resolution and capturing narrower glitches than comparable MSOs, Tektronix says.
The scopes are designed so embedded system designers can easily discover intermittent problems with a 50,000-waveform/s capture rate and intensity-graded digital phosphor display technology. Designers can then capture signal anomalies and glitches with a complete set of triggers, including parallel data and serial packet content. The trigger is applied across all input channels and automatically time-correlates all analog, digital, and serial signals.
The Wave Inspector feature will automatically mark every instance of the event, enabling rapid navigation. Designers also can quickly analyze signals with 29 automated measurements, advanced waveform math, and specialized application support for serial bus analysis, power analysis, and video debug.
Prices range from $6350 for a two-channel, 100-MHz MSO3012 to $14,700 for a four-channel MSO3054 with an included P6316 digital probe. A limited version of NI LabVIEW SignalExpress Tektronix Edition is included for free with the MSO3000 series. Users can upgrade to the standard version, with more than 200 measurement, acquisition, analysis, and reporting features, for $699.
Tektronix Inc.