PC plug-in cards may reside in an engineer's lab computer or in a production test system. External PC-connected scopes reside on lab benches, on production floors, and in field applications. Benchtop Scopes Bench scopes remain the most popular because of their versatility and stand-alone operation. Our survey chart lists manufacturers of bench scopes. Most DSOs have 8-bit resolution, which works well for displaying most digital signals and many analog signals.
Some measurements require finer resolution, though.
Scopes from Gould and Nicolet provide 12-bit resolution. DSOs, with their IEEE 488 ports, find their way into many custom ATE systems, too. Many test-system builders like having a bench scope in their test systems so they can take advantage of the scope's user panel. In production test systems, technicians can connect probes to bench scopes and use them without removing the scope from the test system. Often, a test-system builder will use VXIbus scopes only when the customer specifies them.