(1) TEKTRONIX Mid-range realtime scopes capture multiple signals simultaneously eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says: "The DPO7000 Digital Phosphor Oscilloscope family of mid-range scopes from Tektronix is on-target as design-in of serial transmission architectures proliferate. Serial handshaking and packetized data transmission is being used in everything from chip-to-chip interconnects to automotive dashboard communications." Readers say: » "In order for a new product to be significantly better than previous, it must be an order of magnitude better in several categories. This scope seems to achieve that."
» "Probably a bit much in capabilities and cost to justify for our needs, but it would be a great debugging tool for embedded device drivers."
» "This certainly looks like and sounds like an improvement over and above the scopes we are using! I like what I hear...now can it perform??? I hope there is a follow up to this where the scope is actually benchmarked."
» "Wow, looks great. I would love to have one."
» "I really need to see/try it!"
» "The Specs are incredible and for it to come standard with serial triggering on I2C, SPI and RS232 . . . well it sounds like the scope was designed for my company. I will definitely tell the Engineers about it! If I can get enough of the engineers interested, I may try to get our local Tektronix Rep to come in and give a demo."
» "Wow! Aalready ordered one!"
» "This scope addresses some of the problems inherent to analog scopes That would be solved using their new technology."
» "Awesome!"
» "Great scope with excellent features, looks and peformance."
» "DPO7x is likely one of the best oscilloscope under 2.5Gbps signal. Now more and more design is up to 3-6Gbps. 10Gbps design will come true soon. We are working on 10Gbps system."
USABILITY RANK: 1
(2) LECROY Unique form-factor Windows-based digital scopes debut eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says: "LeCroy Corp. now offers a line of Windows-based digital oscilloscopes that are claimed to eliminate tradeoffs between performance, display size, and bench footprint. Dubbed WaveRunner Xis, these scopes are priced comparably to the company's forerunner WaveRunner 6000A series, even with the WaveRunner Xi's higher performance, bigger displays, and more compact size. They fill the so-called "viewer" scope niche in the 400-MHz to 600-MHz domain." Readers say: » "A useful tool to capture and examine "glitches", noise and other nasty signals none of us wish to see on our signal or power lines ...."
» "Le-Croy finally started to play with the new format, Good! Although I have been using a thin form factor scope from Tektronix for 6 years now."
» "The options for probes and ease of connecting them, and the ability to easily transfer the data, for a presentation for example, are two of my priorities when evaluating a scope."
USABILITY RANK: 2
(3) ANRITSU Battery powered vector network analyzers go afield eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says: "With a frequency accuracy of 25-ppm, Anritsu Company's VNA Master MS2024A and VNA Master MS2026A battery-powered instruments are arguably the first handheld VNAs (vector network analyzers) offering the ability to make 1-port and 2-port magnitude and phase measurements that are as good as what you'd get in the lab." Readers say: » "These instruments will be used by technicians where the location of specific faults depend on taking and interpreting a large number of readings dealing in a short time. Other users will be research organisations with the same requirement - to collect and collate the figures to diagnose specific faults or follow a line of research. In these areas the instrument will be appreciated."
» "Wow! All around on price and performance in a portable!!!"
» "The GPS feature would be perfect for logging potential cell sites after conducting RF output test."
» "It is a very nice handheld VNA, it's very suitable for feild test." USABILITY RANK: 4
(4) ZTEC INSTRUMENTS PC-hosted oscilloscope plug-ins offer up to 16-bit resolution eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says: "Providing dual-channel bench-top scope capabilities in PC-hosted modular form-factors, ZTEC Instruments's latest 250-MHz-bandwidth plug-ins are deep-memory boards for PXI, PCI, and VXI systems. They accommodate input signals over a wide dynamic range, add very little internal noise (equal to or less than 0.1% of a selected range), and include high-stability TCXO (temperature compensated crystal-controlled oscillators) timebases." Readers say: » "Too expensive for the performance."
» "Impressive!"
» "Now if I could just get this in an USB or PCMCIA format that would be great!" USABILITY RANK: 6
(5) NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS USB pod helps develop and test serial devices eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says: "If you're working with serial busing based on I2C (inter-integrated circuit) or Motorola-derived SPI (serial peripheral interface) communications protocols, check out National Instruments's (NI) latest USB (Universal Serial Bus) device. It's priced at less than $400." Readers say: » "To me, National Instruments is the last place I'd go for low-level development tools, mostly because it's so hard to use their tools with anything BUT labView/labWindows. I much prefer a clean standalone C/C++ API. I may be alone, but to me, "without requiring in-depth knowledge of I2C and SPI communications" is more of a detraction than a selling point for people embedding I2C/SPI devices."
USABILITY RANK: 3
(6) ULTRAVIEW PCI bus A/D board gobbles data at a whopping 1.5-Gsamples/s eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says: "Here's a blazing speed PCI bus plug-in that has unprecedented storage depth. In use, it permits uninterrupted acquisition of ultra-long bursts of wideband spectra. Offered by Ultraview Corp., this board exhibits about an order of magnitude deeper storage than other available A/D boards." Readers say: » "This board offers technology useful in defence, astronomy, R&D. The storage capability would prove useful in diagnosing intermittent problems in "slower" equipment. The price puts it beyond my reach. I will use one of these when they become available on the s/h market."
» "Too expensive."
» "Nice use of memory."
USABILITY RANK: 7
(7) BYTE PARADIGM USB box works as general-purpose hardware resource eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says: "As a plug-and-play box thatıs priced at about $1000, Byte Paradigm's GP-22050 BASE can operate as either a bi-directional instrument, as noted in the press release (on the left), or as a single-direction device. Each pin or signal can be individually defined as an input, an output, or as a bi-directional line. The GP-22050's programmable interface then communicates to your PC through a plug-and-play USB 2.0 (Universal Serial Bus) interface." Readers say: » "Needs a Linux- or Mac OS X-compatible version." USABILITY RANK: 5
(8) AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES PHY layer data-generator works to 12.5-Gbits/s eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says: "Releasing you entirely from writing test software, and freeing you from any effects generated by a BERT (bit error rate tester) source itself, Agilent's new N4903A serial pulse data generator provides realworld jitter-tolerance testing needed to characterize next-generation serial devices." Readers say: » "My role in industry is design of "garden variety" uC systems. In this area, the N4903A would be rarely used. For serious communication engineering - yes." USABILITY RANK: 9
(9) TEK MICROSYSTEMS VXS board packs dual 2.2-Gsample/s A/D channels eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says: "When it comes to high-performance plug-ins for realtime DSP applications, TEK Microsystems, Inc. is right up there with the likes of Pentek, Mercury Computer Systems, and Thales. Now that TEK has an accord with QinetiQ, you're likely to see more jointly developed products, including carrier, payload, PMC/XMC, and single-board computers." Readers say: USABILITY RANK: 10
(10) JTAG TECHNOLOGIES Network-transparent modules implement remote JTAG testing eeProductCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says: "JTAG Technologiesıs latest boundary-scan IEEE-1149.1 test product is unique. The TapCommunicator makes it possible to execute boundary-scan tests on targets with test-clock frequencies of up to 40-MHz, over an unlimited distance, across asynchronous network paths." Readers say: USABILITY RANK: 8
