Tektronix, Inc.

Michael A Gauland

Steven K Sullivan

Charles L Saxe

Roy I Siegel

Frederick A Azinger

Clark P Foley

Stanley K Sasaki

Multiple views of the signal are generated by a time-sharing use of the oscilloscope's acquisition hardware. The instrument software makes a set of measurements of the input signal, and from the results of those measurements classifies the input signal as to type. Signals of particular types implicitly select suites of views of the signal. The operator sees examples of the other views available while a related view is the main view. Alternate views can be &ldquo;live&rdquo; miniature views, and displayed alongside in simplified form, alongside the main view. By clicking on them, these alternative views may be made to become the main view. The operator can add and modify views. Each view comes with a set of measurements that are automatically performed and the results are displayed on the screen as text annotation to the waveform. A different view of the signal comes with different automatic measurements, and presents the results of these measurements as annotations to the waveform image. These next alternative setups may be miniature &ldquo;live&rdquo; displays.

Continually responsive and anticipating automatic setup function for a digital oscilloscope

A method and apparatus performs time-interval to voltage conversion immediately and continuously allowing timing variations to be viewed and correlated with other voltage signals displayed on an oscilloscope. A calibration output assists in calibrating the vertical gain and offset of the oscilloscope. An automatic setup software routine finds suitable resolution and offset settings. The method includes the steps of selecting the type of time-interval to be measured, scaling the counting of a clock signal appropriately, offsetting the counting means as desired, counting the number of clock signals that occur during every selected time-interval, limiting the counted results to a preselected range, and converting the counted results to an analog voltage for display by an oscilloscope. And, in a preferred version of the method, when counted results are limited the operator is notified, and there is an additional step of detecting when time-intervals are occurring faster than they can be counted and notifying the operator of that too. A corresponding apparatus for performing the method is disclosed.

Real-time, uninterrupted time-interval to voltage converter

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Hillsboro, OR, United States of America

Michael A Gauland