EDN -- 04.25.96 1-GHz, 4G-sample/sec DSO prices drop below those of DSOs with half the bandwidth

Out in Front: April 25, 1996

1-GHz, 4G-sample/sec DSO prices drop below those of DSOs with half the bandwidth

With the introduction of its 9380 series, LeCroy Corp comes out swinging for the next round in its pitched battle with archrival Tektronix. LeCroy's four-channel, $19,990 9384 offers 1-GHz bandwidth on all channels and, in the single-channel mode, 4G-sample/sec real-time sampling. The 9384's price is less than 60% of that of Tek's TDS784A with Option 1M, a scope that has equal bandwidth and sample rate, and about $1000 less than that of Tek's TDS744A with Option 1M, which has half the bandwidth and sample rate of the LeCroy scope.

The 9380 series units lack Tek's color displays or patented InstaVu feature, which enables the capture of as many as 400k waveforms/sec (vs fewer than 1000 waveforms/sec for most other high-performance DSOs). Instead, the LeCroy scopes offer an exclusion-triggering feature that LeCroy says many users find more valuable. Both exclusion triggering and InstaVu increase the likelihood of the scope's capturing elusive transient waveform anomalies (EDN, Oct 12, 1995, pg 19). LeCroy also boasts that its 9-in. (diagonal) monochrome CRTs display about 80% more pixels than do Tek's 7-in. color units.

The 9380 scopes also offer waveform-processing features, such as the ability to calculate histograms and 1M-point FFTs. These features are standard in the $25,990 9384TM and are optional in the series' other models. According to LeCroy, no other DSOs calculate FFTs with resolution approaching 1M points, because none incorporate such deep processor memory. The processor memory is separate from the deep-waveform memory (4M samples in the $28,990 9384L). Deep-waveform memory has long been a hallmark of LeCroy DSOs. At the low-priced end of the 9380 line, however, the 100k-sample/channel waveform-memory depth is only 75 to 80% of that of Tek's TDS700 series scopes with deep-memory option 1M.—by Dan Strassberg

LeCroy Corp, Chestnut Ridge, NY. (800) 553-2769.

Tektronix Inc, Beaverton, OR. (800) 426-2200.