For my company I need to select an oscilloscope with 1GHz BW, 4Ch analog. We have received an excellent offer from both Tektronix and R&S. Both are good and both has its own advantages and disadvantage which leads me confusion. Please give us your valuable opinions to select any one from these two.
Well, what are you going to do with it? You merely list features of which some have little relevance in a practical sense so it's not a lot to go on.
Tektronix MSO54 5-BW-1000
Advantages:
1. Biggest and full HD screen with easy to use UI (my opinion)
Good if you like it. Our engineers didn't because it's not following common logic (i.e. disabling a channel by dragging it into the recycle bin).
4. Standard embedded OS and optional windows 10.
Doesn't make much difference in reality.
5. Flexible analog or digital channels (not interested in digital channels now, but just mentioning here)
The thing with FlexChannels is that if you need digital you lose analog, something which other MSOs don't suffer from.
Disadvantages:
1. 6.25 GS/s for each channel which is good, but lower compared to 10 Gs/s of RTO2000
Doesn't matter. 6.25GHz is more than sufficient for a 1GHz scope.
2. Rise time is only 400pS for 1GHz scope. So the real BW=0.35/400pS = 875MHz
As other said, don't get hung up on risetime figures (besides, the factor of 0.35 is only adequate for low BW scopes).
3. 500,000 wfm/s is low compared to 1M wfm/s of RTO
Doesn't matter, you won't see a difference. Your scope is still blind >90% of the time. Which is why having a proper trigger suite matters a lot more than high waveform rate figures.
4. Price $15,300 compared to R&S $3,400 cost more
Yeah, that's what you pay for the name. Tek believes the fact that they were the number one scope maker when analoog scopes were a thing some 30 years ago is still worth something when they have been making some of the worst digital scopes in history. And the MSO5 isn't a lot better, we one in for assessment a couple of times and still found embarrassing bugs that should not exist in a product at this price.
There's a reason Tektronix has seen dwindling sales for about two decades while scopes sales mostly went to Keysight and LeCroy.
Rohde & Schwarz RTO-2000
Advantages:
1. 10 GS/s independent of number of channels.
2. Rise time 350pS which is the real bandwidth is 0.35/350pS=1Ghz[
...
4. Ultra fast update rate 1M wfm/s.
None of it matters in reality.
5. Windows 7 comes default (don't know advantage or disadvantage. is there any possibility of windows corrupt?)
No, if you don't treat the scope like a PC and install crappy software on it.
6. Lower price EUR. 10,700 ($3,400 lesser compared to Tek)
And in addition, R&S actually provides real support where Tek often stalls and is unwilling to fix (or even acknowledge) issues with its products. That's at least the case in Europe and the U.S. (who knows, maybe Tek India is different).
Disadvantages:
1. 12.1" 1280x800 display (compared to Tek its low)
Yes, but since scopes are not flatscreen TVs the resolution doesn't matter if the UI is designed to provide sufficient information.
2. Default 500MHz probe.
Yes, This is pretty much standard for most 1GHz scope. They all come with passive probes which are pretty poor for signals over say 300MHz in general anyways.
3. 8bit ADC (16bit at high resolution)
Yes, but since you didn't tell us what you're going to use the scope for it's hard to say if that even matters.
Also, R&S has the RTA4004 which is a 10bit scope and which is offered in a 1GHz version.
Then there is Keysight (DSO-X4kA/6kA, Infiniium-S) and LeCroy (WaveSurfer 4000HD, HDO Series) which are the top two manufacturers when it comes to scopes. Leaving them out of consideration means you might be missing out on what at the end of the day may be better tools.
Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. I don't consider the price as a point (because I'm not going to pay). Both are giving really good hardware and good support. I like both and I'm really in confusion. So please give me your feedback on these points.
Yes, if you follow datasheets and brochures. Then there is reality.
Also, it's not a good idea to buy a >$10k scope without getting a loaner and testing it for a week.
But at the beginning should always be the use case, i.e. what the scope will be used for.