Products > Test Equipment

Which logic analyzer for FPGA work up to 300-400 Mhz

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suspension:

--- Quote from: nctnico on January 07, 2023, 10:40:45 pm ---
--- Quote from: Thomas on January 07, 2023, 08:03:07 pm ---
--- Quote from: nctnico on January 07, 2023, 12:55:50 pm ---This looks like a neat tool but what I'm missing from the specification are the input capacitance & impedance. And the capture buffer is quite small. 128Mbit in total (14Mbit per channel for the 9 bit version and 7Mbit/channel for the 18 bit version).

--- End quote ---

Yes, the capture buffer is quite small. But as with many USB logic analyzers, only transitions are stored (often referred to as compression). They claim 100M transitions can be captured in most cases. This can be tested here:
https://tech-tools.com/captures.html

But still - YMMV.
One should always consider data sheets and specs carefully.
Corner cases and unlucky circumstances are always lurking and waiting to ruin your day.

In this regard I think the boat anchors are a safer bet - I think they have fewer "hidden" limitations and surprises.
But then again - the DigiView is a lot smaller than the floppy drive of a boat anchor :)

--- End quote ---
Yes and no. Typically I'd agree a boat anchor takes a lot of space and is a PITA to haul around the lab but the Tektronix TLA700 series is an exception. My TLA715 sits high up a shelve and I control it remotely from my PC. The probe cables are long enough to reach the desk below so basically I only have a few probe pods on my desk when using the logic analyser.

--- End quote ---


Does this mean we can control full logic analyzer functionality through a PC software without interacting with its display and controls?

One more thing, which modules do you recommend for this unit? My main application is FPGA development and that can also occasionally involve debugging serial communication protocols like pciexpress/MPI/etc.

markone:

--- Quote from: Thomas on January 07, 2023, 11:29:39 am ---
--- Quote from: markone on January 07, 2023, 09:50:41 am ---I was not aware of this device, it looks quite capable for the price, does its windows application show captured data in real time fashion or you have to wait the end of recording phase ?

--- End quote ---
It operates in the normal capture-process-display manner, with "Auto Run" or "Run Once" options on separate buttons. This can be fast or slow depending on sample speed, memory depth, number of signals and decoders, see under Performance section here:
https://tech-tools.com/digiview-sw.html

The software also has Search on captured data. I haven't used it, but it seems comprehensive:
https://tech-tools.com/searching.html

Overall the software is a bit unusual and takes some getting used to, but it's always responsive and stable. Never seen a crash.

BTW, I think this analyzer is a bit slow for the OP's applications.
And a bit expensive ::)

--- End quote ---

Does the "Auto Run" mode act like a DSO "normal" trigger mode, so it auto re-arm after serving a trigger event ?

Considering its capability to define complex trigger / capture mechanism by a script plus graphical scheme it does not seem so expensive.

markone:

--- Quote from: mtk on January 07, 2023, 01:38:48 pm ---
--- Quote from: markone on January 07, 2023, 01:12:48 pm ---
--- Quote from: mtk on January 07, 2023, 11:58:33 am ---DSLogic Analyzers have stage trigger supporting 16 stages of trigger flag. Each stage support logic operation (and/or) of 2 sets of trigger. Each set support edge/level trigger of all channels, invert and counter. There is also serial trigger - https://www.dreamsourcelab.com/doc/DSView_User_Guide.pdf. It does not look much convenient to set up, but it seems possible to filter the requested from you values ?

--- End quote ---

Serial trigger does not work at all with async serial and it's a huge pita to setup with I2C and SPI, stay away this thing if serial decoding is your job.

--- End quote ---

Mine is in transit and can not test it right now. Have you tried submitting a support request via Github - https://github.com/DreamSourceLab/DSView/issues ?

--- End quote ---

Not yet, but I guess that it would not bring anywhere considering the way they implemented the whole mechanism, where an actual signal transition is needed to define a data bit position.

So it's easy to understand why only I2C and SPI are supported, in any case the system implemented to define an advanced trigger is a huge pita to say the least.
In my case the final nail in the coffin is the following "feature" : during the capture process DSView shows a progress round graph that drives you crazy in auto repeat mode rendering almost a flashing screen  :palm:

So, if async serial trigger OR live screen update are a must for you prepare a place on a shelf to store the toy (like i did).

nctnico:

--- Quote from: suspension on January 08, 2023, 05:35:36 am ---
--- Quote from: nctnico on January 07, 2023, 10:40:45 pm ---
--- Quote from: Thomas on January 07, 2023, 08:03:07 pm ---
--- Quote from: nctnico on January 07, 2023, 12:55:50 pm ---This looks like a neat tool but what I'm missing from the specification are the input capacitance & impedance. And the capture buffer is quite small. 128Mbit in total (14Mbit per channel for the 9 bit version and 7Mbit/channel for the 18 bit version).

--- End quote ---

Yes, the capture buffer is quite small. But as with many USB logic analyzers, only transitions are stored (often referred to as compression). They claim 100M transitions can be captured in most cases. This can be tested here:
https://tech-tools.com/captures.html

But still - YMMV.
One should always consider data sheets and specs carefully.
Corner cases and unlucky circumstances are always lurking and waiting to ruin your day.

In this regard I think the boat anchors are a safer bet - I think they have fewer "hidden" limitations and surprises.
But then again - the DigiView is a lot smaller than the floppy drive of a boat anchor :)

--- End quote ---
Yes and no. Typically I'd agree a boat anchor takes a lot of space and is a PITA to haul around the lab but the Tektronix TLA700 series is an exception. My TLA715 sits high up a shelve and I control it remotely from my PC. The probe cables are long enough to reach the desk below so basically I only have a few probe pods on my desk when using the logic analyser.

--- End quote ---


Does this mean we can control full logic analyzer functionality through a PC software without interacting with its display and controls?

--- End quote ---
Yes. The application software that runs on the analyser itself does the same.


--- Quote ---One more thing, which modules do you recommend for this unit? My main application is FPGA development and that can also occasionally involve debugging serial communication protocols like pciexpress/MPI/etc.

--- End quote ---
I know too little about the serial protocol modules to answer this question. I never really looked into obtaining one of those.

tggzzz:

--- Quote from: suspension on January 08, 2023, 05:35:36 am ---One more thing, which modules do you recommend for this unit? My main application is FPGA development and that can also occasionally involve debugging serial communication protocols like pciexpress/MPI/etc.

--- End quote ---

There are two independent parts to that: the physical layer hardware and the decoding.

To me, Message Passing Interface is a software concept, and at that point printf() statements are conceivable. OTOH pciexpress is a physical and PHY layer concept.

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