TVC501

Tektronix TVC501
time-voltage converter Tektronix TVC501 Produced from 1991 to (?) Manuals Tek TVC501 Operator's Manual Tek TVC501 Service Manual Tek TVC501 Application Notes Tek TVC501 Sales Guide Tek TVC501 Schematics (Manuals are OCRed PDF files unless noted otherwise)

Manuals – Specifications – Links – Pictures

The Tektronix TVC501 is a time-voltage converter plug-in for the TM500 system.

It adds three measurement functions to a scope's voltage vs. time capability: time-delay vs. time, pulse-width vs. time, and period vs. time. The TVC 501 continuously measures the selected timing parameter and instantaneously generates a voltage proportional to the measurement. The time-interval vs. time waveform can be viewed on any scope. Conversions are made pulse-to-pulse without averaging for up to 2 million timing measurements per second. Timing variations can be viewed with selectable vertical resolution from 1 μs to 1 s per division.

Key Specifications

Minimum input pulse width	10 ns
Input Impedance	1 MΩ // 50 pF
Output Rise time	75 ns into 50 Ω

Links

Description of TVC 501 in 1991 Tek Catalog

Patents that may apply to TVC501

Page	Title	Inventors	Filing date	Grant date	Links
Patent US 4985844A	Statistical waveform profiler employing counter/timer	Clark Foley • Donald L. Taylor	1989-05-08	1991-01-15	TVC501

Background

Team:

Stan Sasaki - Marketing, Product Definition and Design
Mike Gauland - Software Guy (as shown on his business card)
Clark Foley - Project Manager and Design
Chuck Davis - Mechanical Design (as needed for front panel mold tooling)
Randy Nolan - Manufacturing Leader

Notes on the TVC501 (a.k.a. Chili Dog) by Clark Foley:

The product concept for the TVC501 came from Stan Sasaki but first a little backgound discussion is needed.
I had demonstrated graphics, statistics and data reduction in 1979 with the 7854 displaying a series of timing measurements (e.g. pulse width versus time) using the 7D15 Universal Counter/Timer and displaying them as a histogram. A bulky custom system with a rack of equipment was no longer needed. The histogram that appears in one or more 7854 product brochures was my way of demonstrating that we could acquire, visualize and analyze data on the same tool rather than only look at a voltage or current signal. To many, this seemed to be a unique and interesting peculiarity of the 7854 rather than a more generally useful idea.
In the late 1980s, Stan had been lobbying different product groups to develop a tool to analyze disc drives. Initially, the idea was to create a highly targeted tool to find more than just jitter and timing errors, but also error rates and associated locations on the magnetic media itself. The response was fairly cold as nearly nobody knew about designing such things and thought it to be too far from their usual business. Even the notion of just graphing and reporting statistics about jitter and clock stability seemed a stretch.
While I was working on the 11301A and 11302A, Stan proposed adding measurement statistics and graphics to support the counter/timer in the scope. I was excited at the prospect of adding this to the 11300 scopes to further promote the incredible counter/timer we had. The idea was to find a way to get a product that would be useful for long-term jitter and stability analysis. It could not support the full requirements of the disc drive industry but it did support the rapidly growing use of PLLs and high-speed serial data transmissions to name a couple. The proposal in 1988 was named the 11350 Time-Interval Analyzer. I and the borrowed skeleton crew working on the A models were all for it but management had already torpedoed the 11301A and 11302A by cutting nearly all of the promotional budget and discontinuing engineering support by the time the A models were introduced.
A year or so later, Stan and I found ourselves in the product line that made TM500/TM5000 products. Amid the chaos of several re-oganizations and layoffs, Stan and I set out to build a prototype while not spending a dime on anything that needed management approval (i.e. keeping a low profile). The thought was to build something modest to demonstrate the idea of plotting timing measurements over a period of time; no histograms, no Allan variance plots, just a simple trace. In essence, we wanted a transducer (a.k.a. a probe) for a scope. Eventually, Stan and I had hand wired a prototype that fit into a single-wide TM500 module. Stan defined the functionality and features as well as designing the input trigger comparators, button board, processor and prototype software. I designed the pulse forming circuit (e.g. Width Time A-B, Period etc.), continuously measuring ping-ponging counters and the analog output. We were able to demonstrate it to various managers in the division and they gave us the approval to move it forward as a real product. After yet another re-organization, the project landed in the Measurement and Accessories Product Line (MAPL).
With the official support of management, the product would be tracked, given a budget and a project manager assigned. I became the project manager and remained a designer. Stan became the marketing manager as well as continuing as a designer and we managed to talk management into letting us hire a full-time, bona fide software designer, Mike Gauland. We also needed to give this thing a name so that it could be identified on the New Product Introduction (NPI) project tracking charts. I asked Stan if he had any thoughts on the matter and he said that he always wanted to name a project either Hot Dog, Chili Dog or Corn Dog. I said that it had to be Chili Dog! CHILI DOG is what appeared on all of the tracking sheets. At many NPI project status review meetings, giggles and chuckles erupted when the moderator called out the project name when asking for an update.
The first fully functional prototypes with PCBs sported the front panel nomenclature of CHILI DOG. The official customer nomenclature was TVC501 TIME-VOLTAGE CONVERTER.