GW Instek 2000A and 2000E

[ralphrmartin]

On the face of it, the GW Instek 2000A seems to have better specs in most areas except memory than the 2000E models. Yet I can buy the former for a lower price than the latter. Anyone know any reasons why to prefer the latter, except for memory?

[saturation]

I don't own either but looked into both a year ago before buying a 1054B.  In the USA,  the A is still more expensive.  E was for economy.  A key difference besides memory is the E is 1GSa/s per CH [it may drop to 500MSa/s at 3 to 4 CH, IIRC ]  while the A is 2 GSa/s per CH and supports both RTS and ETS.  E includes serial bus decoder, while to do so with the A you need to buy the logic analyzer option.  Last I saw the VPO was not very well done on the A compared to Rigol but the E and B VPO is better.  A is SVGA screen [ squarish shape], E is WVGA [rectangular].  Dave did a video teardown of both and there are reviews by others too in the archives. 

[pascal_sweden]

Does GW-Instek still provide SW updates for the A-version?

So the A-version is still officially supported?

The A-version has a slot where you can put in modules. This was really a nice concept!

They were also going to provide applications that you can install on the scope.

Any updates on the available applications? Are there many available?
Are some of them free, or do you have to pay for it?

Did they release an API and SDK in the mean-time to develop your own applications?

[saturation]

Their website has any all updates, here is for the A:

http://gwinstek.com/en-global/products/Oscilloscopes/Digital_Storage_Oscilloscopes/GDS-2000A

For the B, so far I've seen updates to the firmware almost every quarter, the last for the B or E series was 2 20 2017.

[pascal_sweden]

In terms of overall CPU performance the A-version is doing well, and most likely contains more expensive FPGA architecture than the E-version.

However the memory size is limited.

It's a pity that they don't have an A-version with more memory, or an E-version with module slots and logic analyzer option.

[saturation]

Yes, very likely on purpose to insure a product doesn't cannibalize another product's sales by insuring as little overlapping features as possible.  The thing is test drive it, so buy locally so it can be returned easily.  The E and B model have frequent firmware updates appear mostly housecleaning rather than a critical fix, a changelog now shows what has been improved, if you didn't notice it before.

In terms of overall CPU performance the A-version is doing well, and most likely contains more expensive FPGA architecture than the E-version.

However the memory size is limited.

It's a pity that they don't have an A-version with more memory, or an E-version with module slots and logic analyzer option.