Product category: Stand-Alone Instruments
News Release from: Tektronix | Subject: TDS7000 Series
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 13 June 2002
DPOs move up to faster signals
Tektronix has made significant enhancements to its award-winning series of digital phosphor oscilloscopes (DPOs)
The enhancements address key applications in the computer, communications, and semiconductor markets, as well as general-purpose needs. Developers of both cutting-edge and commodity electronic products are confronting design challenges that arise from accelerating data rates and system complexity.
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 13 June 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Waveform generator sets serial standard
Testronic Labs is the first test laboratory in Europe to provide precertification for SATA products using the AWG7000 arbitrary waveform generator
Oscilloscope software monitors jitter
DPOJET maximises the timing and jitter measurements of complex clock, digital and serial data signals
Signal integrity has become a key issue, as has the increasing use of narrow, high-speed serial bus architectures.
In addition, there is continuing pressure to bring products to market in the shortest possible time.
The new enhancements for the TDS7000 Series DPO include several industry firsts such as the world's most advanced jitter analysis application, the world's only real-time serial pattern triggering, and the world's fastest active probe, that simplify and speed the engineer's work in these areas.
Importantly, most of the enhancements are backwards compatible with existing, installed TDS7000 and CSA7000 Series instruments.
'Two years and thousands of happy customers later, eleven new features enhance the award-winning TDS7000 Series enabling designers to more efficiently solve emerging measurement problems and meet demanding design schedules', said Colin Shepard, Vice President, Oscilloscope Products, Tektronix.
Further reading
Test solution suits DisplayPort 1.1 standard
The DisplayPort test solution consists of a DSA70804 8 GHz real-time oscilloscope with new DPOJET Advanced software
Oscilloscopes receive upgrades
Tektronix DPO7000, DPO and DSA70000 oscilloscopes now offer unimpaired signal representation, as well as accurate timing and amplitude measurements
Software helps serial analysers work end to end
High speed serial data analysis software package covers signal chain from transmitter to receiver and including the connecting channel
'No matter what challenge our customers face, Tektronix' high-performance oscilloscopes' superior measurement fidelity, powerful analysis capability, and flexible connectivity give them easy-to-use tools for the debug, characterisation, verification and manufacturing test of high-speed designs'.
Since the introduction of the TDS7000 Series in 2000, several trends have emerged to shape designers' measurement needs, particularly in the computer, communications, and advanced electronics markets.
Spanning all of these applications is a growing emphasis on signal integrity and the measurements used to characterise and troubleshoot signal integrity problems.
These measurements focus on phenomena such as glitches, pulse degradation, and edge jitter that are increasingly common in the high-speed digital circuits found in today's fast servers, communication network elements, and digital components.
These challenges demand the utmost bandwidth and signal fidelity from the oscilloscope and its subsystems such as probes.
Moreover, signal integrity measurements of characteristics such as jitter require statistical analysis, not just direct measurements.
This calls for dedicated analysis and display software.
The enhancements to the TDS7000 and CSA7000 Series instruments encompass all of these requirements.
Probes and accessories, such as the TCA-1MEG high-impedance buffer amplifier and the P7260 6GHz active probe deliver fast signals to the acquisition system intact.
An optional TDSJIT3 jitter analysis software package accelerates troubleshooting by automating the necessary statistical processes.
Additionally, it is the first real-time solution capable of characterising random and deterministic jitter (Rj/Dj) and predicting bit error ratio (BER).
Using these features, engineers can quickly and easily predict system BER, a good indicator of overall system quality, in mere seconds, versus the minutes or hours required by other tools.
A second trend is the increased use of narrow serial bus architectures rather than parallel types.
While this approach permits higher datarates, it complicates measurement steps such as triggering the oscilloscope, recovering embedded clock signals, and locating specific events contained in 'packetised' serial data streams.
The serial pattern triggering option for the TDS7000 oscilloscopes allows fast isolation of data-dependent failures during conformance testing and evaluation of serial bus elements.
A serial mask testing option speeds compliance testing, while a clock recovery option allows the oscilloscope to trigger readily on embedded clock signals - rather than relying on the less stable data stream itself - to ensure positive detection of jitter and pattern dependencies.
Lastly, an optional USB 2.0 measurement package provides an easy-to-use, automated solution for development and troubleshooting measurements for the evolution of this important standard.
A third technical challenge - the need to efficiently debug and characterise ever-faster, more difficult signals - is not new, but it requires measurement tools to advance steadily to meet the demands of accelerating clock rates and emerging protocols and device technologies.
Enhancements such as serial pattern triggering and improved connectivity join forces with existing TDS7000 and CSA7000 features (notably the oscilloscopes' advanced triggering capability and the exceptional DPO waveform capture rate) to ensure uncompromised productivity even as application needs grow more stringent. Request a free brochure from Tektronix....
• Tektronix: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
