Patent Application
20070285407
Claimed subject matter is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. However, both as to organization and/or method of operation, together with objects, features, and/or advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following detailed description when read with the accompanying drawings in which:
Referring to
A signal applied to an input of channel 110 is coupled to a track and hold circuit 114, which may be embodied as an integrated circuit (IC). Track and hold circuit 114 receives the analog output signal from amplifier 112 on one or more of channels 110 of oscilloscope 100. Track and hold circuit 114 operates as an analog switch to route the signals to one or more analog-to-digital (A/D) converters 116 disposed in channels 110. Oscilloscope 100 may provide four channel operation wherein an amplifier 112 is connected to a corresponding A/D converter 116 for that corresponding channel 110.
Continuing with this particular example, the output signals of A/D converters 116 feed into a respective demultiplexer (DEMUX) 118, which may, for example, be embodied in an integrated circuit as illustrated. DEMUX 118 may perform one or several different functions, and, in one embodiment, DEMUX 118 may receive samples of a signal on a channel 110 from an A/D converter 116 at the rate of the A/D converter write the samples to an acquisition memory 124 at a rate matching and/or slower than a rate of A/D converter 116. For example, DEMUX 118 may write 16 or 32 samples at a time to acquisition memory 124. Furthermore, DEMUX 118 may also include various digital signal processors (DSP) implemented in hardware, and DEMUX may include a dedicated DSP circuit 122 and a FIR filter 120.
Acquisition memory 124 may be a different block than the main memory (not shown) for system DSP (Digital Signal Processor) 128. DEMUX 118 has a circular addressing and control logic and receives triggers from a trigger system 126. In one embodiment, trigger system 126 may be realized as an applications specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The data stream of signal samples is continuously written in a circular fashion wherein past data is overwritten until a trigger event occurs. After a desired amount of post trigger data is captured by DEMUX 118 and written to acquisition memory 124, DEMUX 118 ceases to write to acquisition memory 124. Once the data is acquired by acquisition memory, system DSP 128 may then perform one or more digital signal processing operations on the data. Furthermore, data may be passed back from system DSP 128 through DEMUX 118 to perform additional DSP operations.
System DSP 128 receives signal-related data from acquisition memory 124, processes that data, and ultimately displays a waveform representative of that data on a display of a display controller (Display DSP) 130. An enhanced user interface 132 is associated with Display DSP 130 and is used by an operator to enter or edit data used as search criteria or as data to trigger oscilloscope 100. Oscilloscope 100 may be configured to trigger from many different types of events. The triggering events may include a particular register being written to, or a particular value being written to memory, among many other triggers. That is, the content of the operator-entered data may be text or numeric data or it may be representative of a memory address, for example an address of an 12C bus, or an identifier of a CAN bus.
Heretofore, test and measurement instruments, such as oscilloscopes, have had controls and displays that restricted the form of the data that could be entered by a user to a single format, for example binary format.
Referring now to
In one such embodiment, display portion 210 includes a data display portion 212. Data display portion 212 may be configured to display addresses and/or values of specific memory addresses, among other data to be displayed. It is important to note that data display 212 portion displays the same data simultaneously in several different formats 214, 216. That is, data is displayed in both hexadecimal and binary format. Such a display in multiple formats allows a user to view addresses and data in different formats at the same time, and allows easy and simultaneous selection of both the format and digits of the data for editing purposes.
Referring now to
Referring now to
Heretofore, a user may have needed to change a search term from, for example, “00112” to “11112”. While it would have been desirable to display that data in more easily read hexadecimal format “316” and change it directly to “F16”, such operation was not possible because the interface being employed in the oscilloscope did not display or allow editing in anything other than binary format. An example of such an interface is the SPI interface in the MSO6104A oscilloscope manufactured by Agilent Corp. It is noted that the I2C interface of that same oscilloscope requires data input in hexadecimal, and does not display in binary. There are times when one would like to work in binary, and other times when working in hexadecimal is preferable. Requiring a user to engage in a separate operation to perform a format conversion between the two, so that he can enter the data in the only format allowed, is both time consuming, and prone to error. The GUI of the subject invention displays the data in multiple formats. As shown in
That is, the subject system allows individual bits, groups of bits, blocks of data, entire registers, or other size blocks of data to be selected for editing in either displayed format. An operator uses an input device 222 to simultaneously select the both the data format and the data block to be edited 219. This may be accomplished by turning a first multipurpose knob 223 to select the data to be edited 219. The first multipurpose knob 223, or a different knob 222, may be turned to change or edit the currently selected data 219. The manner of display and selection of the data allows a user to easily edit different portions of the data in a convenient format, without the need for a separate conversion procedure, thereby saving the user time. Both edited and non-edited data can be saved by pressing the first multipurpose knob 223, or employing another user input 222 from the user interface 220.
Referring now to
Referring now to
Displayed data may then be selected for editing 614 via input portion 220, 221. A user utilizes input device 222 to simultaneously select both the data format and the data block to be edited. This may be accomplished by turning a first multipurpose knob to select the data to be edited. The selected data may then be edited at step 616 by turning the first, or a different knob. The edited and non-edited data is saved at step 618. The saving may be accomplished by pressing the first, or another knob from the user interface. The process then continues at 620 by entering new data, or by editing a different search term. When process shown in the flowchart of
Although the invention was described in terms of displaying, and allowing editing, in two formats (binary and hexadecimal), one skilled in the art will understand that the data may be displayed, and editing allowed, in more than two formats. Such other formats may be for example, binary coded decimal, ascii text, octal digits, etc.
The use of the word “or” in the following claims is intended to be in the inclusive (i.e., Boolean) sense, meaning one, or the other, or both. Moreover, the use of the word “or” does not imply that both alternatives must be present; it is sufficient if either alternative is present alone, but both alternatives may be present, as well.
