Logic analyzers: A variety of general and special purpose digital circuit analyzers can be used for system development and/or diagnosis

Digital-circuit hardware and software problems are finding new solutions with the development of new trouble-shooting tools, such as logic and microprocessor analyzers — the result of the increasing use and complexity of digital integrated circuits (ICs). When Spectrum surveyed the logic analyzer field in 1974 (see “The state of logic analyzers,” Dec. 1974), there were only three firms — and a handful of logic analyzer models — on the scene. Today, nearly two dozen companies are producing a multitude of models too numerous to list (see Table I for a representative sampling). The original logic analyzer has spawned bus analyzers, microprocessor analyzers, logic state analyzers, and a variety of other digital-circuit-analyzer instruments.