How many channels are suitable for a mixed signal oscilloscope?

The mixed-signal oscilloscope was first introduced in 1993 and has two analog channels with eight or 16 digital channels. In the next few years, the mainstream MSO is an essential debugging tool for embedded system designers. The number of channels is basically locked in 2 or 4 analog channels, plus 16 digital channels. Embedded designers use MSO because they can view 2 or 4 signals and can scale up to 20 signals without having to resort to the final tool, the logic analyzer.

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Although the number of such channels has been widely accepted by the market for a long time, is this still suitable for today's embedded systems? This is a question worth considering for oscilloscope manufacturers and embedded system designers. The manufacturer must know whether it provides the test functionality that the customer actually needs and is willing to pay for. Designers need tools that are suitable for the job.

Thinking about this issue has driven the implementation of multiple research projects, and embedded system engineers from around the world are investigating the number of oscilloscope channels in greater depth. The latest 5 series of MSOs reflect the results of these studies in many places, increasing the number of analog channels provided to 6 or 8 and providing 8 to 64 digital channels. It is also possible to reconfigure the digital channel during operation.

Given that the four-channel MSO has achieved impressive results in the past few years, it can be said that the traditional number of analog channels and digital channels can fully meet the needs of most embedded designers. More specifically, designers strive to make 4 The channel is sufficient. But a large percentage of engineers (35% of our research) claim that the number of ideal analog channels they need is eight.

In the past, when these engineers needed more than four analog inputs, they tried to use two oscilloscopes simultaneously. This practice of "cascading" multiple oscilloscopes presents multiple challenges. For simultaneous acquisition, multiple oscilloscopes must be triggered at the same point in time, both for cable (or dual probe) requirements and for creative trigger settings. It's also hard to compare the data on the two displays, so many engineers get the data from two oscilloscopes and then use the computer to close the waveforms for evaluation. Even if the two oscilloscope models are identical, this synchronization can take a long time, and if you are using a different oscilloscope model, the problem will be more.

In terms of digital channels, it has been proven that the reduction in numbers is as important as the increase in numbers. In some cases, many engineers have a lot of frustration because they are forced to buy 16 digital channels, but in reality only need 8 digital channels. In our study, about 75% of respondents claimed that they did not want 16 digital channels, some wanted more, and some wanted less.

For embedded system designers, flexibility is more important than the number of channels in many of the oscilloscope's features. Our research found that 79% of embedded engineers want oscilloscopes to be "for future needs" and have multiple functions to meet the needs of design teams facing tremendous pressure.

The most common answer is when we talk to embedded designers about which stages require more channels and greater flexibility during system level debugging. When multiple subsystems begin to merge together, multiple processors, multiple power supplies, multiple serial buses, and multiple I/O devices, system-level viewing capabilities become critical. In the traditional debugging mode of the oscilloscope, engineers need to use 2 channels or 4 channels to capture data multiple times, and trace back the signal path to find the root cause of the problem. Many systems today handle input from multiple sensors, drive multiple actuators, and communicate over multiple buses. Traditional debugging methods can encounter many problems. These embedded computing systems include sensors, accelerators, processing power, and communications to form distributed smart devices in the growing Internet of Things (IoT).

Our research found that another pain point for embedded engineers stems from the proliferation of power supplies in today's systems. To optimize power consumption, performance, and speed, even a relatively simple system might have a 12 V total power supply, multiple 5 V supplies, a 3.3 V supply, and a 1.8 V supply. Verifying and commissioning the power-on and power-off sequences of these power supplies, especially with respect to other control signals or status signals on the board, requires more channels and more testing.

Some creative engineers report that they use a variable threshold on the digital MSO channel to verify the power sequence. In this case, they set the threshold of the digital channel to be slightly lower than the nominal voltage of the power supply, and use this setting to generate a "timing diagram" of the power supply, reset line, interrupt, status line, and so on. This method has a significant drawback, that is, the power supply is represented by a binary waveform, ignoring the analog characteristics of the signal. Most engineers prefer to use analog channels to perform this type of testing and debugging.

For many applications, a traditional configuration of four analog channels/16 digital channels may be sufficient. But if you encounter new problems, and we will definitely encounter new problems, then it is best to know that there are finally some other options to choose from.

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