Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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METHOD OF DISPLAYING LOGIC SIGNALS
FOR A LOGIC SIGNAL MEASUREMENT APPARATUS
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with an aspect of the invention
there is provided a method of displaying logic signals for
a logic signal measurement apparatus, comprising the steps
of storing a set of logic input signals in memory means;
displaying a selected part of said set of stored logic
signals on display means; and displaying memory capacity
indication information simultaneously with said selected
part of said logic signals on said display means, said
memory capacity indication information indicating the
relation of said selected part to said set of stored logic
signals.
The recent progress in digital technology makes
measurement of digital signals increasingly important like
that of analog signals. Logic signal measurement
apparatus or logic analyzers are particularly suited for
adjustment and maintenance of digital equipment such as
digital computers, desktop calculators, computer terminals,
digital control units, etc. The capabilities of logic
analyzers for measuring logic signals before a triggering
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signal and for generating a trigger signal when input logic
signals agree with a predetermined logic pattern are convenient
for measuring logic level as well as time relationship of
logic signals in data and address buses of a digital equipment
under test.
Logic analyzers are designed to store a plurality of
logic signals in memory means such as IC memories before
displaying such stor~d logic signals on suitable display means
such as a cathode-ray tube. Among various other modes, logic
analyzers have a parallel timing mode for displaying the
stored logic signals in a timing diagram. Memory capacity of
logic analyzers can be expanded rather easily for acquiring
a larger number of logic signals, but a finite display area
of the display means decreases the resolution when the entire
stored data are displayed at once, thereby restricting the
number of logic signals to be displayed in a timing diagram.
Memory capacity of conventional logic analyzers depends upon
the available display area of the display means and the
required resolution. In other words, one disadvantage of
conventional logic analyzers is the incapability of storing
large bits of input logic signals to display in a timing
diagram.
The detailed observation of one part of the stored
logic signals is made by expanding the display timebase. Two
approaches are available for expanding the timebase: one is
to increase the gain of the horizontal amplifier with
controlling d.c. level for selecting the part to be magnified
like an oscilloscope, while the other is to vary the display
clock frequency to control the address signal of the memory
means for selecting the magnifying location. The latter
technique may be more convenient than the former because the
magnification factor and magnifying location can be controlled
digitally. In addition, the relation between the magnified
and unmagnified portions as well as the relation between the
magnified portion and the trigger point can conveniently be
displayed by digital means. Some conventional oscilloscopes
have a display mode for displaying a selected partial waveform
to be magnified with higher intensity from the rest of the
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waveform before displaying the magnified waveform, but both
magnified and unmagnified waveforms cannot be displayed
simultaneously. Although some oscilloscopes have an alternate
mode capable of displaying both of these waveforms, this
technique cannot be applied to logic analyzers having a large
number of input channels and a limited display area. It
should be noted that conventional oscilloscopes normally have
two input channels while logic analyzers have 8, 16, 32 or
more input channels. In addition, no digital information
representing the magnification factor and magnifying location
is available in a magnifying method by controlling the gain
of the horizontal amplifier. Conventional oscilloscopes
display the input signal only after a trigger point, therefore
no need arises for indicating the relation between the input
part to be magnified and the trigger point.
Some conventional logic analyzers use a marker in
the unmagnified mode to indicate the start point of the part
of the input signal to be magnified. A large number of
input channels makes it impossible to display simultaneously
the magnified partial input as well as the positional relation
of the input before and after magnification.
It is, therefore, one object of this invention to
provide a method of displaying logic signals for a logic
signal measurement apparatus wherein one part of the logic
signals stored in memory means is displayed with magnified
scale while simultaneously displaying the indication
information for indicating the relation of the magnified part
with respect to the entire logic signals.
It is another object of this invention to provide
a method of displaying logic signals for a logic signal
measurement apparatus capable of storing more bits than
conventional storage bits which are determined by the display
area and resolution of display means.
It is still another object of this invention to
provide a method of displaying logic signals for a logic
signal measurement apparatus for simultaneously displaying
the magnified display and the indication information
indicating the relation of the signal before and after
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magnification.
The indication information used in the method
according to this invention is a linear bar (or an indication
bar) of a certain length representing the total memory capacity
of memory means with an indication for indicating what part
of the logic signals in the memory means is actually displayed.
It should be noted, however, that the indication bar is
narrow enough to be displayed with a plurality of logic
signal waveforms.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:
Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a logic signal measure-
ment apparatus to which this invention is applied;
Figs. 2 through 8 show examples of displays on
the display unit in Fig.1 for describing this invention; and
Fig. 9 and 10 are flow charts for describing this
invention.
The reference numerals in these drawings represent:
10 : data probe
12 : input circuit
14 : high speed memory
16 : word recognizer (WR)
18 : clock generator
22 : keyboard
24 : CPU
26 : bus
28 : programmable counter
30 : CPU RAM
32 : ROM
34 : display RAM
36 : display unit
38 : display formatter
40 : Power Supply
The present invention will be described in detail
hereinafter by reference to the accompanying drawings in which
Fig. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a logic analyzer used
in this invention. Data probe 10 includes eight active or
passive probes each connected between an input terminal for
eight channels (channel 0 to 7) and respective probe tip.
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The output of data probe 10 is applied to both high speed
memory 14 and word recognizer ~WR) 16 through input circuit
12. WR 16 receives logic signals from terminal 20 and also
a reset signal from bidirectional bus 26. The output of WR
16 is applied to programmable counter 28 whose output is then
applied to high speed memory 14. As is apparent from Fig. 1,
connected to bus 26 are memory 14, clock generator 18,
programmable counter 28, central processing unit (CPU) 24,
keyboard 22, read only memory (ROM) 32, CPU random access
10 memory (RAM) 30 and display RAM 34. The output of display
RAM 34 is applied to raster display unit 36 for displaying
it through video display driving circuit 38. Although not
shown in Fig. 1, clock generator 18 and power supply 40 are
coupled to all or some of the aforementioned blocks.
In cperation, a display as s~n in Fig. 2 appears on the
display screen of display unit 36 when power switch is turned
on. The display "PRL TIMING" in Fig. 2 means a parallel
timing display mode of parallel logic input signals. The
present logic analyzer further includes parallel and serial
20 state modes and a signature mode. "<HEX>" means the hexa-
decimal parameter setting out of the other available binary,
octal and decimal parameter settings. "SMPL" means that the
input logic signals are being sampled on the edges of the
clock signal. In addition to the "SMPL" mode, there is a
25 "LATCH" mode which is identical to the "SMPL" mode except that
any signal transitions such as narrow noise tglitches) during
a clock signal interval change the next logic bit. "POST"
means that logic signals after the trigger signal are
selected. Other than the "POST" mode, "PRE" mode of
30 operation is also available for selecting logic signals only
before the trigger signal. "POS" means the positive logic imo~e
but th~- negative logic mode can also be selected. "DATA ~ =
XX" at the second line on the display screen in Fig. 2 shows
that the operator should set in WR 16 at the location "XX"
35 an input logic signal combination (characteristic value) in
hexadecimal ~ means hexadecimal) to be provided to data
probe 10. For setting numbers in binary, octal or decimal,
the display will be ~ , ~ , or a respectively. "DLY
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= 000~ indicates that the operator set the programmable
counter 28 to logic delay for setting a characteristic
value at the location "00~0" in hexadecimal. "EXT ~ = X"
at the third line on the display screen shows the logic
signal combination to be applied to terminal 20, and the
operator sets a hexadecimal number at the location "X".
"SMPL = 50 ns" shows that the sampling period is 50 ns.
Numbers 0 through 7 at the left side of a plurality of hori-
zontal lines represent the channel numbers.
Now, the operator pushes keyboard 22 to select
necessary parameters. CPU 24, then, processes the signalentered from keyboard 22 in accordance with the instructions
stored in ROM 32 and transfers the parameter information to
display RAM 34. The information stored in display RAM 34 is
recalled (or refreshed) periodically for being displayed on
display unit 36 after conversion into a television signal by
video display driving circuit 38. Let us assume that the
operator entered the following parameters: the logic
combination of WR 16 to data probe 10 being "3F", neglecting
the signal from external terminal 20 ~thereby leaving the
display at right of "EXT ~ " to "X"), and digital delay and
sampling period being respectively "2A6F" and "5~s." The
display as shown in Fig. 3 will result if the start button
keyboard 22 is pushed.
The logic level of the input signal detected by data
probe 10 is converted to a desired level such as TTL
(transistor transistor logic), ECL (emitter coupled logic),
etc. by input circuit 12 comprising comparators for making
judgment of the input logic level thereto. The waveform shaped
logic signal from input circuit 12 is applied to high speed
memory 14 and WR 16. Memory 14 stores the output from input
circuit 12 in synchronism with the clock pulse (having a
period of 5 ~s or a frequency of 200 kHz in this particular
embodiment) from clock oscillator 18. When the input signal
agrees with the logic combination "3F" set in WR 16, a first
control signal is generated by WR 16 to be supplied to counter
28. This first control signal initiates counter 28 to count
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the clock pulses. The memory capacity per channel is 252 bits
in this particular embodiment. The "POST" trigger mode is
designed to store 12 bits preceeding the trigger pulse. Thus,
counter 28 counts 2A6F (equivalent to 10863 in decimal) +
(252 - 12) (both decimal) before generating a second control
signal to be applied to memory 14. If "PRE" trigger mode
were selected, 12 bits after the trigger signal are also
stored and counter 28 counts "2A6F" + 12 (decimal) before
generating the aforementioned second control signal. The
digital delay time in this particular example is 5~s x 2A6F =
53.15 ms in decimal. Both WR 16 and programmable counter 28
are controlled by keyboard 22 by way of CPU 24 and bus 26.
On receiving the second control signal, memory 14 stops
storing the input logic signals. This means that memory 14
stores only logic signals before the occurrence of the second
control signal. The data stored in memory 14 is transferred
to CPU RAM 30. As mentioned hereinbefore, the resolution
and display area limitations of raster-display unit 36lallows
only 168 bits to be displayed despite the memory capacity
of 252 bits per channel. This means that only fraction of
the stored data can be displayed on raster display unit 36
(see Fig. 4).
There arises a need to identify the displayed data
with respect to the entire stored data corresponding to the
memory capacity. A push of a window button in keyboard 22
will display "WDO" representing the window mode, 168 bits
of the input data and an indication bar. The entire length
of the indication bar represents the maximum memory capacity
while the white zone, black zone and "O" represent respectively
the displayed part, nondisplayed part of the stored logic
signals and the trigger point. These inCormations are pro-
cessed by CPU 24 upon receiving instructions therefrom.
If the window button is pushed again, the timebase
of the display is expanded as shown in Fig. 6. The magn-
ification factor is 168/84 = 2. In this case, each bit ofthe data stored in CPU RAM 30 is transferred to display
RAM 34 at every two clock pulses, thereby modifying the
contents of display R~ 34. As shown in Fig. 7, another push
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of the window button will magnify the display waveform by
the factor of four with respect to Fig. 5. Each bit of the
data stored in CPU RAM 30 is transferred to display RAM 34 at
every four clock pulses. A position control in keyboard 22
controls the part to be displayed. The position control
signal from keyboard 22 is sensed by CPU 24 which selects the
address of CPU RAM 30 in response to the position control
signal when the data within CPU RAM 30 is transferred to
display RAM 34. Fig. 8 shows how the indication information
display varies as the display position is controlled. Fig. 8A
and B are in the "POST" trigger mode while Fig. 8C through G
are in the "PRE" trigger mode.
Fig. 9 is a flow chart for explaining the method
of displaying the indicator information according to this
invention. When the window mode is selected, the display
indicator point moves to the left end of the indication bar
in step 50 and CPU 24 judges in step 52 whether the magnifica-
tion factor is unity or not. The indication bar is divided
into 21 distinctive sections each comprising 12 byte. With
the unity magnification factor, the unmagnified mode displays
168 byte (168 bit x 8 channel = 12 bit x 14 section). CPU
24 counts 14 sections in step 54. With any modes other than
the unity magnification factor, CPU 24 judges whether or not
the magnification factor is 2. If the magnification factor
25 is judged to be 2, 84 byte data (84 bit x 8 channel = 12 bit
x 7 section) are displayed and CPU 24 counts 7 sections in
step 58. If the magnification factor is not 2, CPU 24 judges
in step 60 whether or not the magnification factor is 4. In
the magnification factor of 4, 42 byte data (42 bit x 8 channel
30 . 12 bit x 4 section) are displayed with CPU 24 counting 4
sections in step 62. If the magnification factor is not 4,
step 64 leads the svstem to automatically perform the
magnification mode in step 62, thereby avoiding any system
error.
The foregoing description reveals that the display
position can be controlled by the position control in key-
board 22. Now, CPV 24 senses the display position in step
66 and the subsequent step 68 substracts 12 from the display
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position. Step 70 judges whether the result is positive or
negative.
One black section ~ result at the display
indicator point in step 72 if it is positive. After displaying
the black section, the display indicator point advances to the
next section in step 74 before returning to step 68. If the
subtraction is negative in step 70, however, step 76 is per-
formed to add 12 to the result of the subtraction. A
judgment is made in step 78 whether the addition is equal to
10 zero or not. If it is zero, a plurality of white sections O
will be displayed in step 80. The number of white sections
solely depends on the selected magnification factor, which
is 14, 7 and 4 respectively for 1, 2 and 4 magnificat.ion
factors. After displaying a plurality of white sections, one
15 black section is displayed in step 82 and the display
indicator point advances to the next section in step 84. CPU
24 judges in step 86 whether or not the display of the
indication information has been completed. The operation
returns to step 82 if not completed, but stops if completed.
Returning now to step 78, a first black and white
section ~ with black at the left half and white at the right
half will be displayed in step 88 if the result of the
addition is not zero. The display indicator point advances
to the next section in step 90 and displays a white section
25 a in step 92 similar to step 80. Then, a second black and
white section ~ with opposite black and white relation to
the first black and white section is displayed in step 94.
The display indicator point advances to the next section
in step 96 to perform step 86. The indication bar is, there-
30 fore, divided into 21 sections including two black and whitesections in step 88 and 94.
Fig. 10 illustrates a flow chart for explaining how
a trigger point is displayed. Firstly, CPU 24 detects the
trigger point in step 98 for judging in step 100 if the
35 "POST" trigger mode is selected. The display indicator point
moves in step 102 to the left end in the "POST" trigger mode
while to the right end in step 106 in the "PRE" trigger mode.
A trigger point indication mark "O" is displayed in step 104
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at the trigger point, thereby accomplishing the trigger point
', display.
As described hereinbefore, this invention is intended
to display a selectable part of the logic signals stored in
the memory simultaneously with the relative position of the
selected part in the entire logic signals. A logic analyzer
to which this invention is applied stores logic signals
exceeding the memory capacity determined by the display area
and resolution of the display unit. In addition, the present
10 invention provides the operator with means for conveniently
identifying the relative position of the part to be magnified
and the memory capacity.
Although one preferred embodiment ls illustrated and
described hereinbefore, a person skilled in the art will
15 understand that various modifications can be made without
departing from the subject matter of this invention.
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