Rockin' logic analyzer employs FPGA foundation
By Brian Dipert -- EDN, March 6, 2003
What if I told you that a small United Kingdom company had just introduced an eight-channel, 100- to 500-MHz-sampling-rate, 3072-sample logic analyzer? If I give you only these specifications, you might be unimpressed: Such a piece of test equipment wouldn't seem state of the art, especially after you read an article on 6-GHz oscilloscopes (see "The scopes trial," EDN, Feb 6, 2003, pg 44). But what if I also told you that the Ant8 fits into your pocket, uses a Windows-powered PC as its display, obtains power solely from the PC's USB connection, lets you upgrade it over the Internet, and—most important—costs only $166? Impressed now?
How did RockyLogic pull off this fiscally cognizant trick? Instead of being a development tool for FPGAs, Ant8 has a Xilinx XC2S30 FPGA at its heart (see "Tools help you lose the hardware blues," EDN, April 18, 2002, pg 36). Sample speed, number of channels, and amount of storage memory are all functions of the FPGA the company chose; as the parts become cheaper, faster, more I/O-buffer-rich, and denser, RockyLogic will be able to make corresponding enhancements to Ant8's progeny. Ant8 supports numerous simple and complex state-machine-driven triggering modes, including edge, pattern, occurrence counting, and minimum- and maximum-duration measurements. See the company's Web site for details. A $19 probe set is also available, and RockyLogic offers Xilinx FPGA-based design-consulting services. I look forward to using Ant8 in future hands-on projects.
RockyLogic, +44-1394-274274, www.rockylogic.com.
