These four examples emphasize the difficulty of defining and evaluating the UDI. A high UDI rating may depend upon detailed characteristics—subheadings—within any of the main categories shown in Figure 1. Other factors, such as the manufacturer's application support or his repair and warranty policies, can delight or frustrate a user and that, too, may affect his scope's UDI. At a higher level, the oscilloscope market has segmented into a rich mix of bench, hand-held, rack-mount, PC-based, and special-purpose test instruments. Within each of these major sections, manufacturers provide several platforms from which a multiplicity of products are offered. For example, improved display, integrated circuit, and battery technologies have enabled smaller, lighter, por- table scopes, but field applications have driven the market for them. Communications and power are two areas where rapid growth and new specifications have created a large demand for on-site test tools. Hybrid instruments also have a place. Brad Byrum, general manager of the Yokogawa test and measurement division, explained: "Our Model DL708E ScopeCorder has the triggering, man-machine interface, and zoom capabilities of a DSO; the triggering and high channel count of a logic analyzer; and the high-resolution, signal-conditioned front-end measuring capabilities of an oscillographic recorder. It can simultaneously measure thermocouples, digital logic inputs, and 10-bit analog waveforms." Divergence from a one-size-fits-all mentality clearly is the approach the scope industry has taken to improve customers' UDI ratings. Proliferation of a wide variety of scopes and scope-like products will be supported in the future by new technologies such as system on a chip (SoC), very-highspeed microprocessors and memories, and computer bus standards.
展开▼
