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12GHz TDR/TDT sampling oscilloscope

The PicoScope 9211A TDR/TDT sampling oscilloscope from Pico Technology is a new instrument specially designed for TDR (time-domain reflectometry) and TDT (time-domain transmission). It provides a low-cost method of analysing cables, connectors, circuit boards and IC packages. The instrument works by stimulating the device under test using its two independently programmable, 100-ps (typical) rise-time step generators. It then uses its 12GHz sampling inputs to build up a picture from a sequence of reflected or transmitted pulses. The results can be displayed as volts, ohms or reflection coefficient against time or distance. As well as TDR/TDT analysis, the instrument can also be used for mask limit testing of a wide range of communications standards including SONET/SDH, Fibre Channel, Ethernet, InfiniBand 2.5G and 5.0G, XAUI, ITU G.703, ANSI T1/102, RapidIO 1.25G and 3.125G, G.984.2, PCI Express 2.5G and 5.0G, and Serial ATA 1.5G and 3.0G. Over 150 industry-standard masks are included. The instrument has three trigger inputs—a DC to 1GHz direct trigger, a 1 to 10GHz prescaled trigger and a 12.3Mbit/s to 2.7 Gbit/s clock-recovery trigger—as well as a 10Gbit/s pattern sync trigger for averaging eye diagrams.