[volt-nuts] EU3458A - what appears to be a 3458A for sales in the European Union only

Dr. Frank frank.stellmach at freenet.de
Tue May 15 11:07:09 EDT 2018


> --------
> In message <7862525b-4879-0c7c-c13a-9a6c1f4a3523 at freenet.de>, "Dr. Frank" write
> s:
>
>> Up to then, it was easy to buy and insert four 62256 SRAMs and get the
>> 01 option for maybe 30€.
>> I've done that directly in 1989, for my first 3458A @ university, later
>> in 2009 for my own hp3458A (2001 vintage), and these RAMs are still
>> available today, if you have an elder unit.
> And now comes the pointed question:
>
> How many of you have actually ever used that extra memory ?
>
> As far as I can tell, most people simply want to check as many
> "Opt" boxes as possible, just on general collectors principle,
> they never actually use the extra memory for anything.
>
> So please spare me the tears over KeySight charging money to cover
> their costs and make some profit on that PAL chip...

Poul-Henning,

that's a really good remark ..a nyhow I needed that in 1989 at first, 
when I used the 3458A for digitizing @ 100kHz / 16bit, at first for 
capturing 256 sine wave periods from my  AC susceptometer.
Later, I wrote some DMA code to continuosly transfer the data directly 
into the sizzling fast 20MHz AT-PC...

And just recently, I needed that memory again, to digitize the initial 
drift of a precision 1kV :10V divider .. as the direct fast transfer 
would have required special code again.

Same story for the 34465A, the digitizing option is useless w/o the 2MB 
memory  option, because the operational system of the DMM is too slow to 
transfer the 32bit or floating point data directly over the busses, 
although KS claimed it would be completely compatible to the 34411A 
(which has in fact 16bit transfer also).

So, no crocodile tears necessary, sometimes you really need these 
collectors options.

Frank


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