Comparison between virtual oscilloscope and ordinary oscilloscope
A virtual oscilloscope usually consists of three parts: data collector + computer + virtual instrument software. The data collector conditions the input analog signal, converts it from analog to digital, and caches the data when necessary. The computer is a commonly used tool that is widely used and has powerful functions. Human-computer interaction resources include large-screen display (compared to the narrow screen of traditional oscilloscopes), mouse operations, keyboard operations, touch screen operations, voice operations, etc., and powerful computing capabilities, including one or more high-speed CPUs, massive The storage space includes hard disk, network disk, memory, etc.; the virtual instrument software is built on the powerful computing resources and human-computer interaction resources of the computer, processing, analyzing, and displaying the collected data, and providing users with a human-computer interaction interface. .
Compared with traditional stand-alone oscilloscopes, virtual oscilloscopes have a hardware price advantage, mainly because computers are popular products for the masses. Although they are powerful, they are very cheap due to the annual sales of billions of units on the market and extensive competition. The price of a traditional oscilloscope that integrates ordinary computer capabilities is very expensive, which can be ten times or even a hundred times more than the price of an ordinary computer. Another advantage of virtual oscilloscopes is brought by virtual instrument software. Software can provide flexibility, scalability, and upgradeability that traditional oscilloscopes cannot provide. Through changes in software functions, different instruments can be defined based on the same hardware, and multiple instruments can even be used at the same time. Therefore, although we sometimes still call it a virtual oscilloscope, it is not accurate because its functions go far beyond the scope of a conventional oscilloscope and include spectrum analyzers, dynamic signal analyzers, distortion analyzers, signal generators, and data loggers. , LCR meter, vibration analyzer, etc., logic analyzer, protocol analyzer, network analyzer and many other traditional instruments.
Virtual instrument software is the core component of virtual oscilloscope. A good virtual instrument software can maximize and effectively utilize the powerful resources of the computer itself, including the computer's CPU, memory, hard disk and interactive tools. The design principle of the virtual oscilloscope can be realized using the computer's own hardware, so there is no need to duplicate the same functional hardware in the data collector to maximize resource reuse and reduce costs. The functions of a good virtual instrument software should greatly exceed the functions of a traditional ordinary oscilloscope, because the virtual instrument software runs on a computer that is much more powerful than the traditional oscilloscope hardware.
