Feb 11, 2008 CAN, LIN, I2C, SPI, RS-232/UART and USB buses were designed to meet specific needs in applications such as automotive control and chip-to-chip communications. In recent years, these low-speed serial buses have replaced proprietary serial and parallel buses in most embedded designs. Their low cost and breadth of development tools make them popular in a wide variety of embedded applications.
"Unfortunately, designers have been unable to view these buses with their traditional portable oscilloscopes," said Jay Alexander, vice president and general manager of Agilent's oscilloscope business. "Until now, they've had to use more expensive bench oscilloscope models. With this introduction, engineers can troubleshoot their embedded designs quickly with a very affordable oscilloscope."
The Agilent 5000 Series oscilloscopes now offer triggering for these buses as a standard feature. Customers who already own a 5000 Series scope can add this feature by downloading firmware version 5.0 or higher from http://www.agilent.com/find/dso5000. There is no charge for the firmware download.
To make it even easier to find and debug errors, the optional Agilent N5423A I2C/SPI, the N5457A RS-232/UART and the N5424A CAN/LIN protocol decode toolsets give designers hardware-accelerated decoding that updates at rates matched only by other Agilent oscilloscopes. In contrast, competitive oscilloscopes -- when they offer serial decoding -- use software-based decoding. This can slow waveform update rates dramatically, increasing the chance that important information is missed in the "dead time" between acquisitions.
Additional information about Agilent's 5000 Series oscilloscopes and serial bus support is available at http://www.agilent.com/find/dso5000. Screen images are available at http://www.agilent.com/find/dso5000_images.
U.S. Pricing and Availability
The Agilent N5423 I2C/SPI serial decode option for 5000 and 6000 Series oscilloscopes is available now at a price of $1,000. The Agilent N5424A CAN/LIN automotive decode option for 5000 and 6000 Series oscilloscopes is available now and is priced at $1,500. The Agilent N5457A RS-232/UART option for 5000 Series and 6000 Series oscilloscopes is available at a price of $1,250.
About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is the world's premier measurement company and a technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company's 19,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenues of $5.4 billion in fiscal 2007. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at http://www.agilent.com.
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