Logic analyzer

A logic analyzer captures digital data from a digital system and presents it to a user so that th euser can locate failure of the digital system.

The basic problem that a logic analyzer solves is that digital logic is too fast to be observed by a human being, and has too many channels to be examined with an oscilloscope.

A logic analyzer would trigger on a somplicated sequence of digital events, and then copy a large amount of digital dsts from the system under test. The best logic analyzers behaved like software debuggers (showing the flow of the computer program), or oscilloscopes.

When logic analyzers first came into use, it was common to attach several hundred clips to a digital system. Later, specialized connectors came into use. In modern computer systems, simulators, boundary-scan, and hardware-based and microprogrammed software debugging tools have displaced logic analyzers for most uses.