The QA100 represents a new milestone in price & performance for 8- to 32-bit developers working in complex, mixed signal environments at sub 50 MHz speeds. The market today has focused on blindly offering faster and faster oscilloscopes, completely ignoring the challenges posed by mixed signal development. Worse, to achieve the faster speeds at economical prices, manufacturers have dropped to narrower ADC width and in some cases are overclocking ADC parts, further reducing the effective bit depth of the signal to just 6 or 7 bits. Oscilloscopes aren't defined by sampling rate alone. There are a host of variables to take into account. And the right scope for you depends on the types of systems you are working on.
In developing the QA100, we have stepped back and studied the needs of mixed-signal developers. Most working on complex embedded systems are not just hardware or just software engineers. They are engineering "supermen" (and women) that straddle the boundary between software and hardware. They are fluent in C code, assembly, verilog and solder. They might be working on UI code one day, and fixing a problem found in the FPGA the next. Their clocks speeds aren't necessarily sky high, but the complexity is. Quickly diagnosing, documenting and sharing the solution is critical.
The QA100 targets this engineer.
Design Philosophy
The QA100 is a PC-based oscilloscope for Windows XP and beyond. This means a PC is used to collect, display and analyze your data. The connection to your PC happens over a USB High Speed link, and the high-speed transfer rate (up to 480Mbps) means update rates rivaling video games are possible. It also means you are looking at data on a high resolution desktop monitor in 32-bit color instead of a low-cost LCD panel that can display limited resolution. And best yet, your mouse and keyboard can drive the user interface and accomplish tasks in a fraction of the time it takes on a standalone scope. Sharing data has never been easier, with the ability to display comments directly on the screen fixed at a certain point in time. Add a note to the capture, copy the screen, drop it in an email and explain the problem to other engineers in less time than ever before.
