Signature analysis

Signature Analysis is a method to simplify (field) troubleshooting of complex digital systems, developed at Hewlett-Packard in the early 1970s.

The idea is to describe "known good" states of signals in the system – typically when in some diagnostic / troubleshooting mode – as a CRC of that signal, when referenced to a known clock and defined start/stop conditions. The concept was introduced in Hewlett Packard Journal May 1977 along with their first SA instrument, the HP 5004A.

to be expanded

History

Dennis Tillman says:

Signature Analysis was a very interesting troubleshooting concept that HP developed. It had several important benefits:

• It was easy and inexpensive to incorporate this concept into products under development.
• It made it possible for anyone, without prior knowledge or experience with digital electronics, to troubleshoot the new digital circuitry that was rapidly appearing in electronic instruments.
• HP freely shared the concept so others could incorporate Signature Analysis in their products.

Because Signature Analysis was developed by HP, Tektronix would never use it. This was the word from the very top at Tek.

[...]

In 1978 Tek was developing a radically new analog/digital scope that had a microprocessor, A/D converter, digital memory, programming capability, and a GPIB interface (also originally developed by HP as the HPIB). All of this complex digital circuitry was going to make these scopes virtually impossible to be repaired in the Field Office Service Centers.

Tom Rousseau, the 7854 Project Manager, realized this was going to be a huge problem for the Service Centers. When Tom read the May 1977 Hewlett Packard Journal which was entirely devoted to Signature Analysis, Tom realized this concept would make it much easier for the Service Centers to troubleshoot the 7854.

But there was a problem: Howard Vollum was adamantly opposed to using anything from HP. Tom eventually got Howard to budge a little when Tom made it clear how difficult this scope would be to troubleshoot in the service centers without a massive training program for all the field technicians.

Howard reluctantly agreed to allow Tom to incorporate Signature Analysis in the 7854 provided Tek did not have to buy the HP 5004A Signature Analyzer. Unfortunately there were no other signature analyzers.

As a result Tek developed their own 067-1090-00 Signature Analyzer single-wide plugin for the TM500 mainframe. It was later renamed to the SA501.

Signature Analyzers

• HP 5004A, 5005A/B, 5006A
• Tektronix 308
• Tektronix SA501
• Atari CAT BOX arcade tester / Schematics
• robotron 31020 (East Germany)

Tektronix products designed for signature analysis

• 468
• 5D10
• 7854
• 7A42
• CG5001 / CG551AP
• SA501
• ...

Signature Analysis related Patents

• Patent US 3976864A
• Patent US 4192451A
• Patent US 4527272A