Datasheet

Application Note
www.tektronix.com/oscilloscopes2
While serial buses provide a number of advantages, they
also pose some significant challenges to an embedded
system designer due simply to the fact that information
is being transmitted in a serial fashion rather than parallel.
This application note discusses common challenges
for embedded system designers and how to overcome
them using capabilities found in the following series of
oscilloscopes: MSO/DPO70000, DPO7000, MSO/DPO5000,
MDO/DPO4000, MDO3000 and MSO/DPO2000 Series.
Introduction
Embedded systems are literally everywhere in our society
today. A simple definition of an embedded system is a special-
purpose computer system that is part of a larger system or
machine with the intended purpose of providing monitoring
and control services to that system or machine. The typical
embedded system starts running some special purpose
application as soon as it is turned on and will not stop until
it is turned off. Virtually every electronic device designed
and produced today is an embedded system. A short list of
embedded system examples include:
Alarm clocks
Automatic teller machines
Cellular phones
Computer printers
Antilock brake controllers
Microwave ovens
Inertial guidance systems for missiles
DVD players
Personal digital assistants (PDAs)
Programmable logic controllers (PLC) for industrial
automation and monitoring
Portable music players
Maybe even your toaster…
Embedded systems can contain many different types of
devices including microprocessors, microcontrollers, DSPs,
RAM, EPROMs, FPGAs, A/Ds, D/As, and I/O. These various
devices have traditionally communicated with each other and
the outside world using wide parallel buses. Today, however,
more and more of the building blocks used in embedded
system design are replacing these wide parallel buses with
serial buses for the following reasons:
Less board space required due to fewer signals to route
Lower cost
Lower power requirements
Fewer pins on packages
Embedded clocks
Differential signaling for better noise immunity
Wide availability of components using standard
serial interfaces
Figure 1. Logic Analyzer acquisition of a microcontroller’s clock, address bus, data bus
and control lines.