LeCroy today launched the WaveSurfer MXs-B and MSO MXs-B oscilloscopes ranging from 200MHz to 1GHz bandwidth. The oscilloscopes deliver sample rate of up to 10GS/s and memory of 25Mpts, as well as feature set enhancements which include a powerful Sequence Mode data acquisition capability. The instruments provide 18 digital channels that can sample at 1GS/s for debugging analogue and digital mixed signal systems. They have a 10.4in. colour display for understanding circuit behaviour, including time-correlated views of mixed-signal systems and non-time domain analysis. Capturing complex signals can require different types of acquisition modes, for very slow signals roll mode is helpful, for very fast signals repetitive sample is effective. Sequence mode is a versatile acquisition mode that segments the oscilloscope memory and combines up to 10,000 acquisitions in to a single, sequential waveform. This technique enables capturing of very fast pulses in rapid succession with trigger rates of up to 1.25Mwfms/sec. Additionally, Sequence Mode can be used to optimise memory usage by only capturing data when data is present, ignoring large spans of dead time between pulses or bursts. In the end all the waveforms are displayed and time stamped for further analysis. Sequence mode in combination with the 25Mpts of memory in the instruments enables extremely fast triggering over very long periods of time maintaining a high sample rate throughout ensuring the user always captures the fastest edges or the rarest glitches. WaveScan provides the ability to locate unusual events in a single capture (i.e., capture and search), or "scan" for an event in any acquisitions over a long period of time. Since the scanning "modes" are not simply copies of the hardware triggers, the utility and capability is much higher. For instance, there is no " frequency" trigger in any oscilloscope, yet WaveScan allows "frequency" to be quickly "scanned" for. This allows the user to accumulate a data set of unusual events that are separated by hours or days, enabling faster debugging.
