» MORE READERS PARTICIPATED in voting on products - selected by Alex Mendelsohn - in this category than in any other. Our top product, Tek's scope, was rated by 142 Readers. It also drew the most reader comments of any product in this issue. The scope was first reviewed on eeProductCenter on March 11, 2004.

(1)
TEKTRONIX
Windows 2000-based mid-range oscilloscopes are intuitively easy to use
eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says: "These new mid-range Tektronix TDS5000B Series Digital Phosphor Oscilloscopes (DPO), equipped with embedded Windows 2000 engines and sparkling 10.4-in. displays, are really the cat's meow, and have features that were only options in Tektronix's forerunner 5000 Series scopes. The three options give an analog bandwidth choice of 350 MHz, 500 MHz, or 1 GHz. All have timebases spanning 200-ps/division down to 1000-s/division."
Readers say: » "Wow! The Myscope feature could have saved me a lot of time on past projects. The right click feature is very nice." » "Tek gets it right when it concentrates on working hard on an intuitive interface-it's one of the biggest factors in making a scope a joy to use. With increasing complexity and more and more submenus of scope functions, the issue is probably just going to get more important by the year." » "A competent scope, now integrated into the Windows environment, programmable and networked; this is outstanding evolution."
USABILITY RANK: 1

(2)
AEROFLEX
Broadband spectrum analyzer touts instantaneous capture bandwidth of 600 MHz
Alex Mendelsohn: "Celerity's CS35000 Series was introduced about 18 months ago. However, it's fair to say that the upgrades that Aeroflex just added to the core instrumentation makes it a new player for broadband RF test."
Readers say: » "I honestly loved this new spectrum analyzer simply because of its potential. The field of RF and all of its related counterparts with regards to modulation and such is something that is only going to get 'deeper' (for lack of a better word) Our understanding of the RF delicacies can be enriched greatly with a product like this. Thumbs way up for this device and Aeroflex for making this a reality!" » "Very configurable and versatile!" » "Tools like this, while expensive and high performance are going to both enable and accelerate a whole new generation of product development, in the unlicensed spectrum industries, be it UWB, ISM/GSM radio, and even analog fiber (CATV and RF links)."
USABILITY RANK: 2

(3)
AGILENT
Agilent's latest logic analyzers peer into FPGA internals
Alex Mendelsohn: "Agilent's latest logic analyzers, The Agilent 16900 Series, hosted by Windows PCs, will let you look into a design's signals with a variety of new tricks. As you can garner from the comprehensive press release, these latest boxes leverage advanced computing and gigabit local area networking to achieve their stellar performance specs. But, there's more to it than that-especially when it comes to FPGAs."
Readers say: "This is a very significant new product. Agilent really nailed it!" » "I anticipate making heavy use of the instrument's 'hosted' mode to increase productivity." » "The FPGA internal capability is a super feature." » "This thing is amazing, a very significant advance in logic analysis." » "As a user of Xilinx devices, the ability to debug without paying the pin penalty is attractive. Changing the design to add and subtract pins has always been a problem, not just because of adding pins, but because of the timing differences introduced by the differing place and routes."
USABILITY RANK: 3

(4)
AGILENT
Modular programmable power supply platform supports ATE
Alex Mendelsohn: "When several power sources of various performance levels are needed in a system, you're typically forced to use multiple supplies. If the power supplies come from different manufacturers, you'll usually wind up dealing with multiple vendors and support lines. ...Enter Agilent's new system-ready N6700 Modular Power System (MPS)."
Readers say: "Good building block approach" » "Very versatile. I'm surprised no one thought of something like this sooner." » "Going forward, control over power related factors is going to be a key issue. Agilent's contribution to this is pretty significant and goes in the right direction."
USABILITY RANK: 4

(5)
NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
NI's latest 6-1/2-digit DMM is a PCI bus plug-in
Alex Mendelsohn: "Priced at less than $2000, the systemoriented PCI-4070 FlexDMM-with its 1.8-Msamples/s digitizer and solid-state relays to handle range and function changes-gives you speed, 6-ppm DC voltage accuracy, and sensitivity into the microvolt regime. Key to the DMM's performance is its unique NI-designed sigma-delta A/D converter, dubbed the FlexADC."
Readers say: » "Wow, this is just what the doctor ordered! Has many possibilities and is just a newborn for the PCI bus world." » "I certainly have had applications for this type of instrument in the past, and probably will in the future." » "Incredible performance at this price-point."
USABILITY RANK: 5

(6)
AGILENT
Jitter analyzer does microwave-domain multi-instrument digital datastream analysis
Alex Mendelsohn: "Not only does Agilent's impressive touchscreen-equipped test set, the Agilent 86100C Infiniium digital communications analyzer, make accurate jitter measurements on ultra-fast serial signals, but it automatically breaks down its measurements into key sub-component parts. You therefore get to see not only total jitter, but random jitter, deterministic jitter, and data-dependent jitter, as well as pattern and periodic jitter.
Readers say: "A significant advance for sampling scopes, overcoming the previous deficiency in making accurate jitter measurements. Agilent has significantly raised the bar for signal analysis instrumentation." » "Great product idea, finally. The technology has been in development for 5-7 years and it's good that Agilent commercialized it. Problem is it's still too expensive for the average designer to get his hands on one. This capability could be really useful across ALL communication bandwidths (which is why they go down to 50Mb/s.) This will be loved by the high bandwidth guys at 10/40 Gb/s because having this capability is the difference between shipping your product or not...."
USABILITY RANK: 7

(7)
ADVANTEST
Multi-port 20 GHz component analyzer looks at 16 channels
Alex Mendelsohn: "The use of RF circuits combining multiple functions is increasingly common in miniature devices as used in products such as cellphones. Many RF designs also use balanced circuits. Having multiple functions in a small module, and using balanced circuitry can impose challenges for RF designers and those charged with making measurements. That's where Advantest's latest analyzer, the R3860A RF component analyzer, comes in."
USABILITY RANK: 8

(8)
NOISE COM
Multi-function BER tester pinpoints hits
Alex Mendelsohn: "You can use this instrument-The BA1500 BitAlyzer-to do eye mask, BER, and jitter tests on the factory floor, or use it for more esoteric things such as semiconductor characterization. Of course, it will shine in mainstream applications such as satellite or wireless digital communications testing, or for testing landline cable modems, or disk drive Read/Write subsystems, or any products where high-speed serial data is used. It can even be used in optical systems."
Readers say: "Very, very useful device. You can now analyze and pinpoint BERs, which is very useful in high speed telcom switch design. A little pricey, but in the long run will save you troubleshooting time, which in turn will save you money."
USABILITY RANK: 6

(9)
VMETRO
Bus analyzer sees VME Renaissance vision
Alex Mendelsohn: "This latest field-programmable analyzer, the Vanguard VME Analyzer, is also both a state and timing analyzer. As the press release notes, it supports 2eSST and 2eVME with a statistics engine, a protocol checker, and an exerciser-all of which can run at the same time. The system also provides PCI on P0 support with VG-PMC. The product's VME, PCI, and CompactPCI form-factors share a common hardware module, which VMETRO calls its State Analyzer Module, or VG-SAM. The VG-SAM is interchangeable between the VME, PCI, and CompactPCI carrier boards."
Readers say: » "Networked features and legacy support combined into one is impressive." » "Looks like it is right on the mark."
USABILITY RANK: 9

(10)
PENTEK
VMEbus plug-in targets software defined radio apps
Alex Mendelsohn: "The concept and practical application of software-defined radio (SDR) is a hot topic with RF communications systems designers. On the receive side, the goal is to move A/D conversion ever closer to the antenna in order to eliminate as much post-RF-amplifier hardware as possible in an SDR, and to implement modeagile RF decks. Likewise, in an SDR's transmit chain, the goal is to implement as many transmit functions as possible, and to render embedded designs applications-malleable. That's especially important when you consider today's many communications modulation schemes and RF band plans. That's where this product-the Model 6228-shines."
USABILITY RANK: 10