Patent ID: 7899638

Claim:
A method for processing a waveform acquired by a test and measurement apparatus, the method comprising: acquiring samples of a signal for a plurality of periods of the signal by an acquisition module of the test and measurement apparatus; storing the acquired signals to a computer readable storage medium of the test and measurement apparatus; determining a distribution of transition times of the acquired signal by a processor of the test and measurement apparatus; applying a Q-scale algorithm by the processor of the test and measurement apparatus to evaluate the determined distribution at a bit error rate (BER), wherein the applying comprises: scaling the BER with at least one coefficient; evaluating the Q-scale as a function of the scaled BER; determining the at least one coefficient to provide a most linear fit of the evaluated Q-scale points; storing the at least one coefficient to a computer readable recording medium of the test and measurement apparatus; and determining a standard deviation of a distribution from a reciprocal of a slope of the Q-scale.