Re: What scope freq do I need?

From: John Miles (jmiles_at_pop.removethistomailme.net)
Date: 07/12/04 

Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 13:41:42 -0700

In article <40f28e44$0$309$7a628cd7@news.club-internet.fr>, "Robert
Lacoste" <see-www-alciom-com-for-email-adress> says...

> Except if you are a mother board designer you will very probably not need to
> look at these high frequency signals... And I guess that even motherboard
> designers don't... Firstly because all external buses are far slower (400MHz
> max ?), then because probing such signals is a nightmare (just calculate how
> many pF you can afford to have a low impact on 1GHz digital signals that
> have bandwidths up to 10GHz...), and lastly because you will very probably
> not be able to do anything useful with the scope's outputs...

Also, because the propagation of these signals is simulatable with an
insane degree of fidelity these days. Chip and motherboard
manufacturers spend millions developing and maintaining simulation
technology to prevent unpleasant surprises when the hardware comes back
from the fab.

There is not much you can do with any physical test equipment on a
modern PC.

-- jm

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