New flagship in the LeCroy family is the LC684D color digital storage oscilloscope (DSO). Key features, according to Michael Lauterbach, LeCroy director of product management, are its 1.5 GHz bandwidth (50% more than the company's previous mainstream models) and a 10.4-inch TFT flat-panel display (VGA format). The latter, he notes, is unique to the industry, and helps cut weight to 14 kg (31 lb), compared to the company's previous units at 20 kg (44 lb).

All four LC684D models offer four channels with a maximum one-channel sampling rate of 8 gigasamples per second (GS/s). The top-of-the-line LC684DXL offers four channels of simultaneous sampling at 2 GS/s, with 4 Mbytes of memory per channel. These may be combined to achieve two channels at 4 GS/s and 8 Mbytes of acquisition memory, or one channel with 8 GS/s sampling and 16 Mbytes record length. Such long memories allow operating at the highest sampling rate over a wide range of timebase settings. While allowing engineers to capture complex signals, the DSOs have an AutoScroll feature that facilitates "zooming in" on details of long signals--not by a user turning knobs, but with buttons similar to a VCR's forward, reverse, and pause controls.

All the scopes come with the company's ProBus^TM intelligent probe interface that permits the DSOs to use a range of FET (field-effect transistor) probes, controllable from the scope's front panel. LeCroy's Jitter and Timing Analysis package is also an option.

Additional Details...Contact LeCroy Customer Care Center, 700 Chestnut Ridge Rd., Chestnut Ridge, NY 10977; Tel: (800) 4LeCroy; website. http://www.lecroy.com.