Agilent's Infiniium 8000 series is a range of oscilloscopes with 600 MHz and 1 GHz real-time bandwidths, that inherits the MegaZoom waveform expansion feature of previous Infiniium instruments, backed by as much as 128 Mpoints of data memory. Displays are XGA resolution, touch-screen, and the instrument represents data in the "z-axis" with 256 levels of colour-display intensity. The series comes in the format of DSOs or of mixed-signal oscilloscopes (MSOs) that add 16 channels of digital information to the 'scope's waveform display, all fully time- and trigger-correlated. Signal-analysis features include FPGA dynamic probing, serial data analysis, and vector-signal analysis for engineers working with wireless signals. The instruments' operating system is Windows XP Pro; data interfaces include GPIB, LAN and five USB 2.0 ports: one on the front panel and four on the rear. The four instruments in this release all feature four scope input channels, at 600 MHz or 1 GHz, and with or without the 16 digital channels. Sampling rate is 4 Gsamples/sec maximum per channel in each case. Perhaps in recognition of the intensely competitive aspect of this sector of the scope market, Agilent is offering the 1-GHz upgrade at no extra cost, "for a limited time".

Agilent wil soon announce new products at the top end of the real-time DSO sector, in the over-12-GHz range; we expect to have more details for the next edition of EDN Europe.

Having itself been formed by a spin-off from Hewlett-Packard, Agilent has now sold its semiconductor-products division to an independent investment company to form a new corporation, called Avago Technologies ( www.avagotech.com).

Agilent Technologies, www.agilent.com