Tek series using MagniVu technology

Electronic News, March 10, 1997

Beaverton, Ore.--Tektronix announced the TLA 700 logic analyzer series, a new product platform for the logic analyzer market. The TLA 700 series supports Windows 95 operating systems and implements a new, Tektronix-patented technology called MagniVu.

Under development for two years, MagniVu speeds the critical design testing process. "Essentially, the TLA 700 series is to the engineer what an ultrasound is to the obstetrician, the engineer sees exactly what is going on inside the electronic product," said Dan Terpack, president of Tek's Measurement Business division. "Electronic components are in almost every product we use today, from the cell phone to the dishwasher. Engineers designing these products, roughly 80 to 90 percent of all engineers in the U.S., need a logic analyzer to successfully bring their products to market as rapidly as possible."

The TLA 700 series' MagniVu is a super-fast digital sampler enabling each logic analyzer module to offer 500-picosecond timing resolution on all channels. MagniVu also offers advanced set-up/hold and glitch triggering, both with 500 ps resolution.

The TLA 700 series includes a color portable, the TLA 704; and a color benchtop, the TLA 711, mainframes; logic analyzer modules; digital storage oscilloscope (DSO) modules; all with the Windows 95 operating system.

Through Tek's single-probe approach, the series offers 2GHz timing and 100-200MHz state analysis simultaneously. Each module accommodates from 34 to 136 channels, with a memory depth of up to 512K bits per channel.

The DSO modules deliver up to four channels per module and 1GHz analog bandwidth on each channel. Besides a 5 GS/s single-shot sample rate, a 15K record length across all channels and advanced time domain fault triggering captures digital and analog contexts.

Time, performance and ease-of-use are addressed by the TLA 700's simultaneous state/timing measurements through a single high-density probe, the P6434. This eliminates multiple, complicated probing devices.

The industry research firm Prime Data said the logic analyzer market has a compound annual growth rate of more than 11 percent, the highest among test instrumentation products.

"Tektronix, with the TLA 700 Series, stands to gain market share," Prime Data president Galen Wampler said. "Although Tektronix used to hold the number-one position in this market, they lost focus. It is clear that Tektronix's focus is now back on track, and that they are going to be a significant force in the logic analyzer business."

MagniVu enables the TLA 700 logic analyzer to look more frequently, and more deeply, into the electrical circuitry under test. It is this ability to look often, once every one-half-billionth of a second, making it possible for engineers to debug designs faster. Tektronix adopted Windows 95 to support a paradigm of easy-to-use products, crucial to engineers using logic analyzers to test designs based on exponentially increasing processor speeds. The TLA 700 Series also increases state measurement performance to 200MHz, doubling current industry capabilities.

The TLA 704 color portable mainframe is priced at $9,000; the TLA 711 color benchtop mainframe is $14,000; the logic analyzer module starts at $5,000; the DSO module starts at $10,000; and the P6434 high-density probe is $995. The products are shipping eight weeks ARO.