Product Preview: PicoScope 9201 12–GHz USB Sampling Oscilloscope

The PicoScope 9201, our first high–speed sampling oscilloscope, is due for release this summer.

The new scope has the same specifications as a traditional bench–top instrument costing many times as much, but as it’s a PC–based USB instrument it saves you money and takes up less space on your workbench. It contains newly developed high–speed analog and digital hardware, and simply plugs into the USB port of your PC. The advanced PC software that you need is included at no extra cost.

Main features

• 12 GHz bandwidth on two channels
• Dual timebase from 10 ps/div
• 5 TS/s equivalent time sample rate
• High–resolution cursor and automatic waveform measurements with statistics
• Eye diagrams and automated mask test
• Direct and HF external trigger input
• Up to 10 GHz trigger bandwidth
• 50 ohm SMA inputs
• Windows graphical user interface designed to maximise productivity

Main applications

High–speed serial bus pulse response
Semiconductor characterisation
Electrical standards compliance testing
Digital system design and characterisation
Telecom servicing and manufacturing test

The bottom line

PP463 PicoScope 9201 12–GHz Sampling PC Oscilloscope £5,995 / $12,000 / €8000 + VAT and delivery

Please contact us to register your interest, and then we will let you know when the PicoScope 9201 is available to order. Telephone 01480 396395 or email sales@picotech.com.

Find out more about the PicoScope 9201 sampling oscilloscope

New Features in PicoScope 6

We are still releasing regular updates to PicoScope 6, which supports all of our USB oscilloscopes. Here are the new features in the latest 6.0.13 release.

• Measurement statistics and optional filters on measurements. You can now see the mean, standard deviation, maximum and minimum of each measurement as well as the live value. This is invaluable for production testing and for characterising new devices. You can also enable an optional low-pass filter on some measurements, and select the thresholds (10% to 90% or 20% to 80%) on rise-time and fall-time measurements.
• User–defined threshold for switching between block and progressive modes. Block mode draws the whole waveform at once, while progressive mode updates it from left to right as the data comes in. You can now choose which timebases use progressive mode.
• Page Up / Page Down file navigation. A simple idea that saves time. Press the Page Up and Page Down keys to load the next waveform file in the current directory.
• Save and Save As commands. PicoScope 6 now remembers the last file you saved, displaying its name in the title bar and overwriting it whenever you select the new Save All Waveforms command.
• Preferences reset button. As the number of user preferences in PicoScope 6 is now considerable, we have added this function to let you reset them all to their defaults.
• File history. The File menu now shows a list of recently used files. You can select how many are shown.
• User–defined view name. You can rename each view from the default “Scope 1” or “Spectrum 1” style to something more meaningful.

If you missed the new features in any of the previous releases, you can always catch up using our “Release Notes” page. You can also download the latest version free of charge from our website. If you don’t yet have a PicoScope, you can still run the software in ‘Demo mode’, which can simulate any scope that the software supports.

PicoScope 5000 Series Now has 5-Year Warranty

We have increased the warranty period for PicoScope 5000 Series oscilloscopes purchased on or after 1st April 2008 from 2 years to 5 years.

The PicoScope 5000 Series PC Oscilloscopes are high-performance instruments with 250 MHz bandwidth, a maximum sampling rate of 1 GS/s, and a huge buffer size of either 32 M or 128 M samples. This combination of features, at a reasonable price, makes the PicoScope 5000 Series an indispensable test and measurement instrument.

The PicoScope 5000 Series scopes are supplied with the latest copy of the PicoScope 6 software. Like all of our software, this is supplied free of charge and comes with full technical support over the internet and by telephone to our dedicated support team.

Full details on the PicoScope 5000 Series and PicoScope 6 software are available on the Pico Technology website. You can also telephone or email us for more details.

Find out how you can benefit from the power and performance of a PicoScope 5000

New Blog: Energy–Saving Tips

At the beginning of this year we moved into James House, a large, modern building with enough space for the company to grow. The only snag is our electricity bill, which at the present rate of consumption will amount to £55k a year. As we are experts in data logging but not yet in energy–saving, we decided to install one of our own EnviroMon systems. EnviroMon is designed for gathering temperature measurements and other data from large sites, so we think it’s going to be ideal for checking the performance of the new building. Another great feature of EnviroMon is its ability to display its data on a website in real time (as in this example).

The blog follows our progress in tracking and reducing our energy consumption, and will reveal the results of our efforts as our future electricity bills come in.

Questions and Answers

Here is a selection of the questions that have cropped up recently on our support forum.

Q. Can I use CAT5 USB extender devices with Pico products?

A. The short answer is yes: we have tried it with 25 m and 50 m cables, and it works fairly well.  

Q. How do I change the graph update rate in PicoLog?

A. In the Graph window, click the Options button (marked with a tick symbol). This opens the Graph options dialog. The field that controls the update rate is called Update graph every ... samples. This is normally set to 1 so that every sample is displayed as soon as it is taken, but you can slow down the update rate by typing a larger number.

Events

Please visit Pico Exhibitions for the latest list of exhibitions and trade shows that Pico and its representatives will be attending.

We're hiring!

Thanks to our continuing success and growth Pico are always seeking talented people to join our company.

Please visit https://jobs.picotech.com/ to see our current vacancies. We look forward to hearing from you!

Software releases

Our latest software releases are available as free downloads. To check which release you are using, start the software and select Help > About.

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Contact details

UK Headquarters:
Pico Technology, James House, Colmworth Business Park, St. Neots,
Cambridgeshire, PE19 8YP, United Kingdom
Tel.: 01480 396395 (+44 1480 396395)
Fax: 01480 396296 (+44 1480 396296)

North America Office:
Pico Technology, 320 N Glenwood Blvd, Tyler TX 75702, United States
Tel:+1 800 591 2796 (Toll Free)

Asia-Pacific Office:
Pico Technology, Room 2252, 22/F, Centro, 568 Hengfeng Road, Zhabei District,
Shanghai 200070, PR China
Tel: +86 21 2226-5152

Email: sales@picotech.com