Application: Agilent E1563A digitizer samples waveform in 1k, 4k, 8k, 16k and 1M sample sizes

Results:

1. If you are sequentially taking samples and transferring data, you will get fastest performance with an embedded PC. The Agilent E6235A embedded PC averaged 6% faster than MXI-2, 11% faster than the Agilent E8491B and 3X-6X faster than GPIB.
2. If you take lots of samples and transfer data less frequently, you need to separately consider configuration and measurement time and data transfer time. With 1M samples, configuration and measurement time was about equal for all configurations. However, the Agilent E8491B and the Agilent E6235A embedded PC were equally fast and transferred data three times faster than MXI-2, and 120 times faster than the Agilent E1406A.

Conclusions from this application:

1. If you are taking samples and dumping data sequentially, test systems using the Agilent E6235A embedded PC will give the best total time. System configurations with the embedded PC were an average of 6% faster than MXI-2, 11% faster than the Agilent E8491B, and three to six times faster than the Agilent E1406A. In all cases, the Agilent E8491B was faster than its predecessor the Agilent E8491A.
2. If you make measurements while doing other actions in parallel, you will transfer data less frequently. You should separately consider configure and measurement time and sample transfer time. With 1M samples, configuration and measurement times are equal, but the Agilent E6235A embedded PC and the Agilent E8491B were equal in data transfer speed. The Agilent E6235A and Agilent E8491B were three times faster than MXI-2 and 120 times faster than the Agilent E1406A in data transfer speed.

Agilent E8491B IEEE 1394 (FireWire) PC to VXI Link

Agilent E8491A IEEE 1394 (FireWire) PC to VXI Link

Agilent E1406A GPIB Command Module

NI VME-PCI8015 MXI-2

Agilent E6235A Embedded PC (200 MHz)

Configure Agilent E1563A (ms)

3.55

3.55

29.17

0.18

0.21

Agilent E1563A takes 1k samples (ms)

46.09

46.09

47.27

45.86

46.22

Samples transferred (ms)

2.47

3.36

66.41

1.95

0.68

Total time (ms) for 1k sample

52.11

53.00

142.85

47.99

47.11

Configure Agilent E1563A (ms)

3.55

3.55

29.17

0.18

0.21

Agilent E1563A takes 4k samples (ms)

76.79

76.79

80.39

76.37

76.61

Samples transferred (ms)

4.09

9.69

245.41

6.51

2.15

Total time (ms) for 4k sample

84.43

90.03

354.97

83.06

78.97

Configure Agilent E1563A (ms)

3.55

3.55

29.17

0.18

0.21

E1563A takes 8k Samples (ms)

117.59

117.59

119.57

117.35

117.78

Samples transferred (ms)

5.76

18.21

490.27

12.65

4.11

Total time (ms) for 8k samples

126.90

139.35

639.01

130.18

122.10

Configure E1563A (ms)

3.55

3.55

29.17

0.18

0.21

E1563A takes 16k Samples (ms)

199.71

199.71

202.05

199.18

200.51

Samples transferred (ms)

8.92

35.28

975.61

24.94

8.06

Total time (ms) for 16k samples

212.18

238.54

1206.83

224.30

208.78

Configure Agilent E1563A (ms)

3.55

3.55

29.17

0.18

0.21

Agilent E1563A takes 1M samples (ms)

10521.66

10521.66

10522.87

10521.34

10517.34

Samples transferred (ms)

517.19

2217.64

62578.19

1584.37

515.24

Total Time (ms) for 1M samples

11042.4

12742.85

73130.23

12105.89

11032.79