A split-lissajous display presents two pairs of input signals simultaneously. The signal pairs are used to calculate respective lissajous figures, and then one-half of one lissajous figure is stored in a display memory (25) with a first contrast, such as light on a dark background, and one-half of the other lissajous figure is stored in the display memory with a second contrast, such as dark on a light background. The contents of the display memory are scanned for display in a raster scan format to present the split-lissajous display.

In a multiple trace oscilloscope wherein separate traces displayed on a cathode ray tube screen are updated in succession, a random access memory is addressed by the count output of a programmable counter which increments its count each time the oscilloscope finishes updating one trace prior to updating a next trace. Data stored in the random access memory at the storage location addressed by the count is utilized to control attributes of the next trace to be updated by controlling the switching positions of attribute control switches which select the horizontal, vertical and intensity control signals controlling the appearance of each trace.

The present invention refers to a method of the precise measurement of dependency on amplitude and phase of a plurality of high frequency signals used primarily with a synchrotron accelerator of elementary particles. The essence of the disclosed solution lies in that with one measuring device it is possible to obtain a resolution of 0.2 micron and repeatability of measurements of 1 micron down to the lower frequency limit of few kHz and without aliasing. Simultaneously, it is possible to observe the effects in the frequency range of several MHz with resolution being for a degree lower.

The method according to the invention comprises alternate directing by means of a radio frequency (RF) switch of each from a plurality of analogue input signals to each from a plurality of RF processing unit; amplification of said analogue input signals in RF processing units in order to adjust signals to the measuring range of a plurality of analogue digital (A/D) converters; directing of amplified analogue input signals to a plurality of analogue digital converters and conversion of the analogue signals to digital signals; directing of digital signals to a plurality of amplification correctors; correcting of digital signals by means of correcting signals from an amplification equalizer; collecting digital signals exiting correctors in a digital switch and directing of ordered recombined number of digital signals to a plurality of digital receivers; and filtering of said recombined number of digital signals in a plurality of low-pass filters.

A "component test" function is provided in a low-power, portable test instrument like a digital multimeter. A test stimulus waveform is synthesized digitally, and a digital trigger signal from the synthesizing circuitry is used to trigger acquisition of measurement data. A single-channel front end acquires voltage scan data over one cycle of the test stimulus waveform following the trigger point. Current scan data is later acquired through the same acquisition circuitry beginning at the same trigger point relative to the start of a later cycle of the stimulus waveform, so that the voltage and current scan data, although acquired separately, are very closely synchronized relative to the stimulus waveform, as a result of which they maintain their phase relationship. Stored voltage and current scan data are aligned accordingly and concurrently displayed so as to form a Lissajous pattern on a small display. The invention thus provides improved component test capability in a small, portable instrument, including graphic display of test results.

A timing signal generating circuit (2c) generates a timing signal for each sweep timing dot. An address generating circuit (2a) generates an address corresponding to each sweep timing dot and to the magnitude of an input signal, each time it receives the timing signal. An image memory (3) stores data in the address generated by the address generating circuit (2a). A computing unit (2b), upon each recepit of the timing signal, performs a predetermined computation on that data stored in the image memory (3) and generates a result of computation. The computation result reprsents the frequency of the same address generated for each sweep timing dot. A display unit (4) displays the input signal with a luminance level corresponding to the computation result.

Disclosed is a probability density histogram display (200A,210A,220A,230A,310) for a digital oscilloscope (5) which shows a probability density histogram display of an input signal waveform alongside the conventional voltage-­versus-time time-domain display (200,210,220,230,305) of the waveform. The histogram (315) shows the relative frequency of occurrence of voltage amplitude levels of the waveform (300). The histogram is optional and shown simultaneously with the time-domain display of the waveform.

A "component test" function is provided in a low-power, portable test instrument like a digital multimeter. A test stimulus waveform is synthesized digitally, and a digital trigger signal from the synthesizing circuitry is used to trigger acquisition of measurement data. A single-channel front end acquires voltage scan data over one cycle of the test stimulus waveform following the trigger point. Current scan data is later acquired through the same acquisition circuitry beginning at the same trigger point relative to the start of a later cycle of the stimulus waveform, so that the voltage and current scan data, although acquired separately, are very closely synchronized relative to the stimulus waveform, as a result of which they maintain their phase relationship. Stored voltage and current scan data are aligned accordingly and concurrently displayed so as to form a Lissajous pattern on a small display. The invention thus provides improved component test capability in a small, portable instrument, including graphic display of test results.

A split-lissajous display presents two pairs of input signals simultaneously. The signal pairs are used to calculate respective lissajous figures, and then one-half of one lissajous figure is stored in a display memory (25) with a first contrast, such as light on a dark background, and one-half of the other lissajous figure is stored in the display memory with a second contrast, such as dark on a light background. The contents of the display memory are scanned for display in a raster scan format to present the split-lissajous display.