Technical data

6
86100A/B/C
Firmware Release Notes
configurations for a number of use cases to make the configuration as simple as possible.
• Advanced Clock Data Recovery Setup for the 86108A allowing user to specify Type 2
Transition Frequency (peaking) of the loop.
• Support for MATLAB measurements with scripts created by the user. Now the user can
make custom measurements on the DCA. These measurements run just like internal
measurements, with results on the Measurement Tab, including statistics.
• Improved jitter measurement accuracy for very large jitter. Increased limit for maximum
amount of measureable jitter.
• Added Large Jitter Mode for extending jitter measurement capabilities. This mode is
enabled when the amount of jitter exceeds the transition time of the signal. As with the
• new edge model, Large Jitter Mode will also increase the accuracy of large jitter
measurements and increases the maximum amount of measureable jitter.
• New S-parameter plots, phase and group delay, for 86100C-202 Enhanced Impedance and
S-Parameter Software package.
• Auto Mask Margin is a new enhancement to the Eye Mode Mask Margin feature which will
search for a scaled mask that matches a user specified bit error rate.
• Auto Relock is a new feature for clock recovery modules. Previously, when a recovered
clock had lost lock, the user would have to manually relock. The 8.0 release now has the
functionality to do this automatically.
• Users can now send remote commands to the instrument directly over Ethernet LAN.
GPIB is no longer required for remote operation.
• Increased the maximum record length from 4,096 to 16,384.
• Now ?gPattern Lock?h on 86100Cs with option 001 removes the 4 ns discontinuities on
long spans (no time tears) as long as the trigger delay is at or close to its minimum value.
In this case the instrument synchronizes the timebase to the pattern and force samples to
be taken at the correct locations.
• Increased the maximum timebase range while using Pattern Lock from 250.0 ns/div to
250.0 us/div.
• Increased the speed of the Pattern Waveform Save feature.
• Reduced the minimum points/bit of Pattern Waveform Save from 16 to 1.
• Added support for Trigger Divide Ratios of 1:18 and 1:36.
General Defects Fixed
• XY Verbose values now correspond to the values being shown on the display with account
for the reference plane.
• Fixed crash that would happen when attempting to run the Linear Forward Equalizer from
a MATLAB script which was not available.
• Fixed issues with changing the trigger source while precision timebase is on.
• Fixed two issues referring to DTA messages complaining about precision timebase issues.
One would complain about the time reference being out of band when the precision
timebase was not on, and the other message would ask user to restore reference clock after
long continuous usage of Pattern Lock and precision timebase.
• Fixed a issue where bad data would get reported on clipped signals with precision
timebase.
• Fixed an issue where math signals were not auto scaling properly.
• If TDR calibration is valid and then a vertical cal later becomes invalid/recommended, now
a message will tell user TDR calibration is recommended.
• Fixed bug where :DISK:MDIRectory command would give error message upon proper us
of command.
• The minimum, maximum, and average impedance measurements can now? be applied to
math functions as well as channels and responses.
• Fixed issues with using Pattern Lock and precision timebase with a sub-rate reference
clock.