The mixed-signal oscilloscope made its debut in 1993, featuring two analog channels paired with either eight or sixteen digital channels. Over the following years, the mainstay MSO became an indispensable debugging tool for embedded system designers. Traditionally, the number of channels has been fixed at two or four analog channels, complemented by sixteen digital channels. Engineers gravitate toward MSOs because they allow them to monitor two or four signals while scaling up to twenty signals without needing to resort to the ultimate tool, the logic analyzer.
Even though this combination of channels has been widely embraced by the market for quite some time, one must wonder if it still aligns with today’s embedded systems. This is a pertinent question for both oscilloscope manufacturers and embedded system designers alike. Manufacturers need to ensure they’re offering the functionalities customers genuinely require and are willing to pay for, while designers need tools tailored to their specific tasks.
Reflecting on this issue has inspired numerous research projects worldwide, with embedded system engineers delving deeper into the optimal number of oscilloscope channels. The latest 5 Series MSOs incorporate findings from these studies, expanding the number of analog channels to six or eight and providing eight to sixty-four digital channels. Additionally, digital channels can now be reconfigured during operation.
Traditionally, the four-channel MSO has delivered impressive results over the years. It could be argued that the conventional number of analog and digital channels sufficiently meets the demands of most embedded designers. Specifically, many engineers find four channels adequate. However, a significant portion of engineers—35% of our research—claim that their ideal number of analog channels is eight.
In the past, when these engineers required more than four analog inputs, they often resorted to using two oscilloscopes simultaneously, a practice known as “cascading.†This approach presents several challenges. For synchronized acquisition, multiple oscilloscopes must be triggered at the same moment, requiring careful attention to cable or dual-probe setups and innovative trigger configurations. Comparing data across two displays is cumbersome, so many engineers extract data from both oscilloscopes and use computers to overlay waveforms for analysis. Even if the two oscilloscopes are identical models, achieving synchronization takes considerable time. Using different models compounds the complexity.
When it comes to digital channels, reducing the number can be just as impactful as increasing it. Many engineers express frustration over being compelled to purchase sixteen digital channels when they only need eight. Our study reveals that approximately 75% of respondents do not wish for sixteen digital channels, with some wanting fewer and others seeking more.
For embedded system designers, flexibility often trumps the sheer number of channels among an oscilloscope’s features. Our research indicates that 79% of embedded engineers desire oscilloscopes that are adaptable to future needs, offering multifunctional capabilities to address the immense pressures faced by design teams.
The most frequent response we receive when discussing which stages demand additional channels and greater flexibility during system-level debugging is the merging of multiple subsystems. As multiple processors, power supplies, serial buses, and I/O devices integrate, the ability to view the system holistically becomes crucial. In traditional oscilloscope debugging, engineers rely on two or four channels to capture data repeatedly, tracing signal paths to identify the root cause of issues. Today’s systems often handle input from multiple sensors, drive multiple actuators, and communicate across multiple buses. Traditional methods face numerous obstacles in such scenarios. These modern embedded computing systems, integrating sensors, accelerators, processing power, and communication capabilities, form distributed intelligent devices within the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT).
Our research uncovered another challenge for embedded engineers: the proliferation of power supplies in contemporary systems. To optimize power consumption, performance, and speed, even a relatively simple system might feature a 12V total power supply, multiple 5V supplies, a 3.3V supply, and a 1.8V supply. Verifying and commissioning the power-on and power-off sequences of these power supplies, particularly concerning other control signals or status signals on the board, necessitates more channels and extensive testing.
Some inventive engineers report employing a variable threshold on the digital MSO channel to verify power sequences. They set the threshold slightly below the nominal voltage of the power supply, generating a “timing diagram†for the power supply, reset line, interrupt, status line, and so forth. While this method offers certain advantages, it overlooks the analog characteristics of the signal, which most engineers prefer to examine through analog channels.
For many applications, the standard configuration of four analog channels and sixteen digital channels suffices. Yet, encountering new problems is inevitable, and it’s prudent to consider alternative options should the need arise.
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