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Still the fastest 4-channel scope, says Tek

4-ch, 20-GHz instrument adds features for fast-serial-data analysis

Tektronix has upgraded its DPO (digital phosphor oscilloscope) 70000 range with the introduction of the “B” series, which the company says involves a significant revision of the internal hardware of the instruments. New features include a 5 Gbit/sec hardware-based serial trigger, plus a toolset of applications-specific software packages, some of which have been released over the last few weeks. These centre on tracking the evolution of high-speed serial data links; they are joined by a technology-specific data analysis package of all generations of DDR memory.
Tek responds to the most recent escalation of the ever-present specification war between the leading suppliers, regarding scope native bandwidth figures, by positioning the 70000B as the only unit to deliver a full 20 GHz on four channels simultaneously; a new facility is that you can order any unit from a range of 4, 6, 8, 12.5 16 or 20-GHz bandwidths, at a range of price points, and subsequently upgrade to a higher specification for an incremental charge. At the leading edge of high-speed scope designs, one of the primary differences between vendors is the approach they take to triggering, waveform analysis, waveform capture technique, and capture and update rates. Tek continues its DPO strategy with this product generation, adding to its Pinpoint trigger systems with new hardware that can search a 40-bit pattern of 8b/10b coded data at 5 Gbit/sec and trigger, Tek says, on the first instance of a event. Tek’s FastAcq mode captures data at up to 300,000 waveforms/sec, the company says.
The serial data link analysis package is a software suite that examines real data captured from the signal path, and also computes, based on captured or simulated models, the signal characteristics that will prevail at points in the signal path that you cannot probe. In hardware terms you can observe up to four lanes of a12 Gbit/sec data stream. Noise floor is lower, by 1 to 2 dB for all vertical amplitude settings, leading to an improved ENOB (effective number of bits) figure for the A/D converter performance, especially at higher frequency. Supporting this improvement in the signal path, you can now obtain the company’s Tri-Mode probes (that will yield single-ended, differential or common-mode signals form a single connection) at 4, 6 and 8-GHz operation, plus a probing system that operates up to 20 GHz.
From 4 to 20 GHz, the scopes cost between €46,200 and €130,000; TriMode probes correspondingly cost €6,050 to €15,000.