I see two types of instruments for this near future, the internal PC-board and a new StarTrek <Tricorder> hand-held instrument (Palm-Computer with PC-Card), which can also serves as peripheral via USB-1/2. Both Instruments are "Software Defined", and they can be re-configured and controlled by EDA and other programs.

The shapely <7 of 9> and the Virtual Reality DSO

The change from <Workbench to Workstation> is a reality today for nearly all of electronic engineering, but instruments are still designed for the old style of bread-boarding, with inputs from signal-generators and performance checking by probing signals with a scope or logic analyzer. My present <IntuSoft Spice> gives me scope-like waveform pictures at the points I select, but is that the actual signal I will get from the first manufactured circuit board? Several designers have confirmed my own experience that, with modern high-speed circuits, simulators still have some problems. Here is the point where "real-world" instruments come into play. At this last stage of the design, the high performance DSO and the <engineering brain> has to find the problem. With the old style design it is a tedious job, --- on the bench is the small new circuit board, the schematic is on one sheet of paper, board layout on another and a third sheet has function and timing diagrams; Signal generator and DSO sit on a shelf. Setting-up the Function generator and DSO, putting the scope probe onto the <right> pin of the <right> IC, counting pin numbers, etc., everything must be coordinated. You must move your head to look up at the DSO, and if the pin-connection slips-off now, the whole process starts all over again.

Having a small calculator-size DSO right beside your circuit board would help, but another interesting solution are the new VGA eyeglasses which several firms are perfecting at this time. (E.g. MicroOptical) The glasses are transparent and let you see the bench and the circuit board but will also project the layout and a flashing test-point indicator. Connect the probe to this point, and the signal from the DSO is displayed in one window and the simulated waveform from SPICE or the Signal-Integrity program in another. If we borrow from <Borg technology> (Star Trek Voyager), the story does not end here; a tiny laser beam scans the board for alignment points and projects layout with flashing test-point and trigger pick-up right on top of it. Not everyone, of course, wants to look like a Borg, and for old engineers like me, the small <GHz Tricorder> size DSO display will do nicely. Again, first a small portion of the layout is downloaded to the DSO display, showing the test-point. After my (shaking) hands have connected the probe, the two waveforms are displayed -- one real, one simulated. Since the small DSO is not more than 3 inches away from the test-point I do not have to move my (old) head. Naturally, the program has already set and adjusted all needed controls on the Function generator and on the DSO. ------ Back to Index