Instruments offer multiple formfactors, functions (.PDF Download)
Instruments come in a variety of formfactors, letting you trade off the performance you need that fits in the space you have available. Typical configurations include benchtop (such as the Rohde & Schwarz SMW200A vector signal generator), portable (such as the portable version of the Tabor Lucid RF signal generator), and PXIe or PCIe (such as the SPECTRUM Instrumentation M2p.65xx Series PCIe waveform generator). Many instruments come with multiple functions—combining an oscilloscope with a signal generator, for example.
While responding to requests for input for last month’s report on signal generators,1 instrument makers also commented on the tradeoffs involved in various formfactors and multiple-instrument functionality. Although they were commenting in the context of signal generators, their observations on instrument formfactors apply to other instrument classes as well.