Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!akgua!mcnc!decvax!ittvax!ittral!holzwort From: holzwort@ittral.UUCP (Paul Holzworth) Newsgroups: net.micro Subject: Re: logic analyzers Message-ID: <412@ittral.UUCP> Date: Wed, 2-May-84 17:30:14 EDT Article-I.D.: ittral.412 Posted: Wed May 2 17:30:14 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 4-May-84 02:15:23 EDT References: <1621@tekig1.UUCP> <2479@watcgl.UUCP> ihuxx.736 Lines: 35 I too have used a Tektronix 9100 and CANNOT recommend that anyone else suffer through with it. On paper it really does look great but in practice it isn't such a great machine. We constantly had problems with it triggering on the wrong state. (You would tell it to trigger on XYZ and it would trigger on ABC.) It is also extremely slow in writing the information to the screen so that if you want to take multiple traces in rapid succession it doesn't keep up. We have recently gotten some Hewlett Packard 1630 analyzers and they are almost all you could ask for. They are fast in responding to keystrokes. (The Tektronix almost always fell behind when I tried to rapidly do a number of commands.) It has never false triggered. It has a number of nice features such as a histogram mode that shows you what percentage of time is spent executing what part of the code. (Great for software optimization) It will also do timing analysis like the Tek. It also has a cassete drive available for storing setups and the newest version (1630G) will operate with a microfloppy and contains EEPROM that allows you to store one setup without the microfloppy present. The Tek does have a couple of advantages in that you can get some very high speed interface pods (with a corresponding loss of logic channels) and it allows you to mix high and low speed pods. It also has an optional state generator available. Given all of the above though, I would rather pay twice as much and get the HP than to have to use the Tek. The beauty of it is though that they are comparable in price. The HP1630D with cassette drive and 43 channels costs a little over $11k. I seem to remember the 9100 being similarly priced although I don't have my catalog with me. I have no axe to grind or affiliation with either Tektronix or Hewlett- Packard. Paul Holzworth