For me, deep memory and display of the sampling rate are important. The user must understand the scope specifications to use it properly, especially DSOs. I completely disagree with Tom regarding the Automeasure Key as the user is almost always better off if they have a good idea of what to expect from the signal they're about to measure and do a quick manual setup. In fact, most modern scopes can store many setups, making manual setup faster. How in the heck is the scope supposed to know what the user is trying to see in a complex signal? Should it try to trigger on the lower frequency or the higher frequency parts of the signal? The Automeasure Key might pick the higher frequency components and have a nice looking trace, but the user may not even realize that there are low-frequency signal components that he/she should be looking at. Using the Automeasure Key is OK if the user truly has read the manual and understands exactly how it operates. At least then, the user can intelligently decide which signals are suitable for the Automeasure Key and which are not.
Moreover, a good scope should have software either internal to the scope or that installs in a laptop or desktop to allow the user to export waveforms to math software like Excel, MathCAD, Mathematica, or Matlab, etc, for post-processing and it should allow easy printing.
With regard to DSOs, the deep memory allows the user to keep the high sample rate(s) up at relatively low time/div rates wheras without deep memory, the scope has no choice but to lower the sample rate as the time/div gets slower. Even if this didn't matter, deep memory allows the user to zoom in several steps to see things that one cannot see when viewing the entire trace. At a minimum, 25,000 points/waveform is needed for most work, especially with PWM signals and other high-frequency modulated signals.
Regards,
Kamran Kazem, V.P. & CTO
Magnetic Design Labs, Inc.
