32-channel PC-based logic analyzers

It's starting to look like ChipScope is a pretty decent logic analyzer. You could get a Xilinx eval board with headers on it and use it and ChipScope as a logic analyzer. The depth will be limited by the number of blockRAMs on the part.

-Kevin

HP/Aligent Logicwaves show up on Ebay occasionally. I don't know anything about them but you might want to take a look.

Mike

You might be better off buying a second hand logic analyzer (non PC based) from eBay. Any PC based logic analyzer is going to be limited, especially with 32 channels. A lot of logic analyzers have RS232 or Network connectors so you can transfer the data to a PC.

Ernie, what do you mean by 'decently' fast? 100Msps, 500Msps?

Nial.

------------------------------------------------ Nial Stewart Developments Ltd FPGA and High Speed Digital Design Cyclone Based 'Easy PCI' proto board

Ernie,

We use a couple of Rocky Mountain Logic Ant16 USB logic analyzers. Works very well and fits in your pocket!

I've only used one at a time and have never had more than 12-13 channels going at once, but suits our purposes on our under 100MHz fpga boards. Love working on my board on my laptop with Byteblaster, serial port, and Ant16 a blazin'.

Cheers, Ken

I'm using iSystem's logic analyzer:

It's not state of the art, but you can build pretty complex triggers. It comes with decent SW, which is rare these days...

Igi

Hi Ken,

I was actually thinking of purchasing one of the Ant16 analyzers too, but I couldn't find any reviews so I was hesitant. So you don't find having only 16 channels limits your work? I am trying to debug a memory bus so I thought that 16 channels would be inadequate.

I was also wondering if you know anyone who's tried maybe using more than one Ant16 analyzer at a time, ie. if you plug in 2 Ant16s would the software recognize both at the same time?

Thanks! Ernie

Hi Nial,

Well, I'm thinking at least 100 Msps...I'm not trying to capture any really high-speed signals.

Thanks! Ernie

It depends, but modest folk though we are, we sometimes brag about getting 500MHz from a Spartan-2 ;-) Of course, Peter A has done way better than that for a frequency counter. As I recall, he got most of the way to 1GHz in a Xilinx 4K part several years ago.

Ant8: 3K deep, Ant16: 2K deep.

Works

Love

Ant16 a

Hello,

I have used the Ant8 logic analyzer and for the money it is good value. Obvisouly having only 8 channels limits what you can do. The sample depth of the Ant8 is quite small and so it is only suitable for slow signals. I haven't checked this, but I think the Ant16 has only half the sample depth of the Ant8. The software doesn't allow multiple Ant8/16 devices, so it wouldn't be much use for 32bit applications. As it's USB based the data does not arrive continuously, so trying to combine devices would most likely fail. To conclude, the Ant8/16 logic analyzers are very good value for money, but they are limited (in my opinion).

Hi Ernie,

I don't know. I guess I'm lazy and I don't usually hookup all the address or data lines. The lower 2-5 is usually plenty for me. (I usually just want to know if the address and data are stable before WEn or something, or how long my interupt latency is, etc.)

Besides, have you priced a stand alone unit? Even on ebay they're very expensive.

My needs are probably modest, but the 2ns resolution has been enough for my detailed timing and backing off to 10 or 20 seems to do fine for seeing the big picture. I think the max sampling is 500MHz.

I don't remember what I paid for it but my hardware consultant practically kidnapped my first one (even though he has a big HP LA) so I got another one for me.

I do wish they had one that was a little better for a little more money (mainly could use a deeper buffer) but I don't see anything better that is worth it for me. I'm sure they are for others.

I have the new pico DSO on the way that is only 2 channel but has 1MB of buffer with 10 GSps.

Ken

Works

Love

Ant16 a

I haven't tried the Ant16 yet, but I would be surprised if you could span more than 16 signals for a trigger when using more than one. This would require some sort of hardware support and I see nothing but USB coming out the back.