Message-ID: <412@ittral.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-May-84 17:30:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: ittral.412
Posted: Wed May  2 17:30:14 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 4-May-84 02:15:23 EDT
References: <1621@tekig1.UUCP> <2479@watcgl.UUCP> ihuxx.736
Lines: 35


I too have used a Tektronix 9100 and CANNOT recommend that  anyone else
suffer through with it.  On paper it really does look great but in
practice it isn't such a great machine.  We constantly had problems
with it triggering on the wrong state.  (You would tell it to trigger on
XYZ and it would trigger on ABC.)   It is also extremely slow in writing
the information to the screen so that if you want to take multiple
traces in rapid succession it doesn't keep up.

We have recently gotten some Hewlett Packard 1630 analyzers and they are
almost all you could ask for.  They are fast in responding to keystrokes.
(The Tektronix almost always fell behind when I tried to rapidly do
a number of commands.)   It has never false triggered.  It has a number of
nice features such as a histogram mode that shows you what percentage of 
time is spent executing what part of the code.  (Great for software
optimization)  It will also do timing analysis like the Tek.  It also
has a cassete drive available for storing setups and the newest version
(1630G) will operate with a microfloppy and contains EEPROM that
allows you to store one setup without the microfloppy present.

The Tek does have a couple of advantages in that you can get some
very high speed interface pods (with a corresponding loss of 
logic channels) and it allows you to mix high and low speed
pods.  It also has an optional state generator available.

Given all of the above though,  I would rather pay twice as much and
get the HP than to have to use the Tek.  The beauty of it is though
that they are comparable in price.  The HP1630D with cassette drive
and 43 channels costs a little over $11k.  I seem to remember the 
9100 being similarly priced although I don't have my catalog with me.

I have no axe to grind or affiliation with either Tektronix or Hewlett-
Packard.

                                      Paul Holzworth