Specifications

9
What Is an Oscilloscope and Why Do You Need One? (continued)
Types of oscilloscopes
Mixed signal oscilloscopes (MSOs)
In a DSO, the input signal is
analog and the digital-to-analog
converter digitizes it. However,
as digital electronic technology
expanded, it became increasingly
necessary to monitor analog and
digital signals simultaneously.
As a result, oscilloscope vendors
began producing mixed-signal
oscilloscopes that can trigger
on and display both analog and
digital signals. Typically there
are a small number of analog
channels (2 or 4) and a larger
number of digital channels (see
Figure 13).
Mixed-signal oscilloscopes have
the advantage of being able
to trigger on a combination of
analog and digital signals and
display them all, correlated on
the same time base.
Figure 13. Front panel inputs for the four analog channels and 16
digital channels on a mixed-signal oscilloscope
4 analog channels
16 digital
Portable/handheld oscilloscopes
As its name implies, a portable
oscilloscope is one that is small
enough to carry around. If you
need to move your oscilloscope
around to many locations or
from bench to bench in your
lab, then a portable oscilloscope
may be perfect for you. Figure
14 shows an example of a
portable instrument, the Agilent
InfiniiVision 5000 Series
oscilloscope.
The advantages of portable
oscilloscopes are that they are
lightweight and portable, they
turn on and off quickly, and they
are easy to use. They tend to
not have as much performance
power as larger oscilloscopes,
but scopes like the Agilent
InfiniiVision 5000, 6000, and
7000 Series are changing that.
These oscilloscopes offer all the
portability and ease typically
found in portable oscilloscopes,
but are also powerful enough
to handle all of your debugging
needs.
Figure 14. Agilent InfiniiVision 5000 Series portable oscilloscope
Oscilloscope Fundamentals