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Backgrounder

Faster Troubleshooting

with the TDS2000

Series Oscilloscopes

Introduction

While the fast, advanced processors in today’s servers and PCs get most of the attention,

humble 20- and 30-MHz processors are doing just as much work in the real world—if not more.

Workhorse microprocessors, decades old in their design, are still earning sockets in machines,

consumer electronics, and vehicles everywhere.

What do these embedded processors, and the applications they serve, have in common?

Several characteristics stand out. The processors are well proven, well understood, widely

supported, and easy to design with. Clock rates are relatively slow, and bus rates slower yet,

compared to current high-end alternatives. The systems in which they are used—ranging from

soft-drink machines to avionics--must have rock-solid reliability. And costs, including design,

manufacturing, and maintenance expenses, must be held as low as possible.

One more characteristic is worth noting: there is a steady trend toward increasing the clock

rates of these embedded components and buses. Not to catch up with the fastest servers, but

toward “short-cycle” devices with clock rates five or six times faster than that of their

predecessors. These devices have the same pinout and the same functionality, combined with

the ability to do more work in a given span of time. This enables them to execute more

instruction cycles and carry out more complex operations without slowing down overall system

operation. For the software developer in particular, this is a great benefit. Time-consuming code

optimization is less critical. New products can be brought to market more quickly and at lower

cost.

All of these technical realities and market pressures result in the need for cost-effective, high-

performance measurement instruments to support engineers’ design and debug work. One

class of tools—digital storage oscilloscopes (DSO)—continues to evolve in response to

changing market requirements, such as the near-universal demand to embed digital

subsystems in products of every kind, and the increasing “speeds and feeds” of the processors

at the heart of these products.

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Summary of content (6 pages)

PAGE 1
Backgrounder Faster Troubleshooting with the TDS2000 Series Oscilloscopes Introduction While the fast, advanced processors in today’s servers and PCs get most of the attention, humble 20- and 30-MHz processors are doing just as much work in the real world—if not more. Workhorse microprocessors, decades old in their design, are still earning sockets in machines, consumer electronics, and vehicles everywhere.
PAGE 2
Backgrounder The bandwidth of the low-cost oscilloscopes that support basic digital troubleshooting has doubled recently, reaching 200 MHz. Other valuable “high-end” measurement features, including advanced triggering, FFT analysis, and color displays, have migrated into entry-level instruments. Now designers have an affordable digital troubleshooting solution, such as the TDS2000 Series, for their work on commodity embedded processors.
PAGE 3
Backgrounder The benefits of greater DSO bandwidth are not limited to viewing signal edges. Ground bounce, noise, crosstalk, and many other aberrations can be observed more readily—and overlooked less often—when a high-bandwidth instrument is used. The higher the bandwidth, the more accurate the reproduction of your signal, as illustrated with a signal captured by the TDS2000 Series at 60 MHz and 200 MHz bandwidth levels.
PAGE 4
Backgrounder The GREATER THAN trigger can help find “stuck bits” and other signals that fail to return to their default state after some transaction. This setting causes the oscilloscope to trigger itself if a trailing edge fails to occur within a specified time. For example, a bus data output signal may switch to a “1” in response to an Output Enable active, and not transition to a new state thereafter.
PAGE 5
Backgrounder Thus the EQUAL TO pulse width trigger allows the oscilloscope do a logic analyzer’s job to some extent. BUILT-IN COUNTER TAKES FREQUENCY MEASUREMENTS TO THE NEXT LEVEL Automated frequency measurements have been part of the DSO feature set almost from the beginning. Normally these derive the period by examining the first full cycle of the captured waveform.
PAGE 6
Backgrounder WAVEFORMS IN LIVING COLOR Formerly an exclusive feature in costly lab instruments, color liquid crystal displays are now a reality for some entry-level DSOs, such as the TDS2000 Series. Color brings an added dimension of information to the display, and makes troubleshooting with this class of instruments easier than ever. A waveform is just a trace on a screen. How can it benefit by being presented in color? The value of color becomes clear when viewing multiple traces.