Agilent Technologies has introduced the 16850 series of portable logic analysers. According to Agilent, these instruments have the industry’s fastest timing capture, with deep memory for quickly debugging digital systems. The series also claims to offer the industry’s only portable logic analyser with both single-ended and differential probing options to help designers get their high-speed digital devices to market faster.
Developers of high-speed digital devices use logic analysers to accelerate the debug and validation phase of system design. Often they must trigger measurements on signs of trouble, such as a time-out signal or error flag, when the root cause actually occurred long before the trigger point.
The high-speed timing capture with deep memory lets the designer look back in time to observe the location of the root cause of failure. The high sample resolution of these instruments makes it possible to differentiate timing problems from functional problems, providing the insight needed to shorten the debug and validation process and bringing products to market more quickly.
The instruments provide 2,5 GHz, 400 ps period timing capture across all input channels, and up to 128 megasample memory depth. A standard state data rate of 700 Mb per second is offered, as well as an upgrade option to 1400 Mb per second.
Users can choose the desired memory depth, starting with the standard 2 megasample depth, along with a variety of choices up to the maximum 128 megasample depth. Both state speed and memory depth options can also be upgraded after the initial purchase.
The analysers also have a 1,4 GHz trigger sequencer to track high-speed circuits and define very specific conditions to trigger on, in order to trap errors and drive quickly to the root cause of failure. Measurement solutions are available for a wide range of bus and signal types. The FPGA Dynamic Probe application, built into the logic analyser interface, provides an automated approach for capturing internal Xilinx and Altera FPGA signals with deep memory state capture.
New low-cost probing has been designed for these analysers, including flying lead and Mictor options. Flying lead probes have single-ended data and differential clock inputs, with a variety of accessories for connecting to targets. Existing 90-pin connector probes, used on Agilent modular logic analysers, are also compatible with these new analysers. This opens up the portable logic analyser market to differential probing, DDR BGA probing and DDR slot-interposer probing.
Many designers of embedded systems are using DDR2 and DDR3 memories in their designs. The 16850 series offers these designers a lower-cost solution for tracing memory address and control buses in state mode capture, allowing for memory bus decoding and the use of compliance testing and performance analysis tools. The series can provide state tracing of address and control buses on systems running up to DDR2 1333 and DDR3 1333 memories.
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