Digital scope range

Tektronix has released what it claims are the world's fastest, most capable real-time oscilloscopes and a new probe that will facilitate design in the computing, communications and consumer electronics industries based on second-generation serial data standards such as second-generation PCI-Express, SATAIII and double XAUI.

The TDS6000 family of digital storage oscilloscopes - the 12 GHz TDS6124C and the 15 GHz TDS6154C - along with the P7313 Z-Active low-loading probe are designed to keep pace with the explosion of high-speed technologies at serial data rates of more than 4 Gbps.

Based on third-generation silicon germanium integrated circuits developed in partnership with IBM, the oscilloscopes offer high bandwidth, long record length and timing resolution, low noise floor and analysis capabilities for current and emerging serial data standards.

The oscilloscopes and probe will help engineers designing ultra-high-speed electronics.

The TDS6154C is claimed to be the only oscilloscopes able to capture the fifth harmonic of the highest frequency pattern for serial standards such as 5 to 6.25 Gbps second-generation PCI-Express, 6 Gbps SATA III, and 6.25 Gbps double XAUI.

The instrument is also said to be the only device able to capture the third harmonic of a 10 Gbps signal.

It provides 12 GHz analog bandwidth and user-selectable DSP for channel-to-channel and unit-to-unit matching. It also includes user-selectable DSP for channel-to-channel and unit-to-unit match plus bandwidth extension to 15 GHz.

Both the TDS6124C and TDS6154C provide 40 GS/s sample rate on two channels simultaneously and up to 64 M optional record length on two channels (2 M on four channels standard).

The unique Pinpoint trigger system is said to be world's only complete A/B triggering and provides glitch/width triggering down to 100 ps. The system in the TDS6000C family provides a serial pattern triggering up to 3.125 Gbps in the new TDS6124C and TDS6154C.

At the heart of the new oscilloscopes and probe are third-generation 0.18 µm BiCMOS SiGe (7HP process) ASICs.

The technology offers peak performance for applications requiring high-speed transfer of data, low noise, high linearity and low power consumption.