ASA Launches M1™ v4.10

In this newsletter, ASA would like to announce the upcoming release of M1 Oscilloscope Tools™ v4.10.  This newest update includes a number of new features such as:

• Column vs. Column plotting within Characterization Manager, allowing the discovery of hidden relationships in your waveforms, is described in more detail in the next item below

• Integrate M1 OT into your lab automation: By customer request, what was originally an in house debugging feature has been turned on for customer use.  The new External Control option allows users to control M1 externally from their own program via XML commands.  This allows M1 to be integrated into your own existing automation setup more easily.  This option can be purchased with a new license or added to an existing license that has an active Software Subscription at an attractive price.

• 8B/10B decode (a $1500 feature at no extra cost):  M1 can automatically detect the sequence of 10-bit characters in the waveform and annotate the corresponding 8-bit character values on either a ScopeView™ or LogicView™.  This can help you to determine if your data will be properly received, or if jitter/SI issues may cause characters to be mis-detected. 

• C# Support: M1 OT's Measurement Builderâ„¢ now supports C# user-defined measurements as well as C++ and MATLAB, for those engineers who are moving forward to the latest programming tools.

The above features as well as several small bug fixes and the first stage of a planned series of Help file updates will be available this Friday, 4 May 2007.  As always, users with an active Software Subscription can download the update installer from www.m1ot.com/M1v4_update.exe

Discover hidden relationships in signals using

Column vs. Column Plotting

M1 Oscilloscope Tools now has the ability to plot one column of values versus another column in its Characterization Manager™, and to apply various statistical calculation algorithms to the resulting dataset.  This will, for example, allow users to determine if certain parameters are related to one another or not by looking at the goodness-of-fit metric from a linear regression.  A practical example would be if the jitter in one signal rises as the jitter in your other signal rises, which would be an indicator of crosstalk.  In addition to the included linear regression and other statistical options that ASA plans to release in the near future, users can actually create their own algorithms to analyze the Column vs Column data in whatever manner they wish.  As with M1's Measurement Builder capability, these user-defined statistical calculations can be created as a C++ or C# DLL, or as a MATLAB M-file.  Column vs Column Plotting can be accessed by selecting "Plot Column vs. Column" on the Characterization Manager Tab.  Characterization Manager is started from the Virtual Deep Memory Toolkit on the Measurement Tools menu.

Mike B's Tip of the Month

This month I'd like to delve into some of the lesser known saving options within M1. Most of our users know that you can save Reports, graphics, and even settings from the M1 user interface.  What sometimes slips below the radar is the ability to save a lot more from one session to the next.  Clicking “Save� on the front panel of M1, and then clicking on “Save Multiple� in the subsequent menu will lead you to the dialog box on the left.  Among other items, this box allows you to save the actual Measurements and Views that you have open along with the standard M1 Settings.  By choosing Load Settings from the Preferences menu, you can then reload that same set of Measurements and Views at a later time.

If you are a user who generally has a lot of views open at any given time, this tip will save you the trouble of starting all those new measurements each time you start up M1. 

Have a useful M1 Feature you want to learn more about? Then tell us! Contact Mike at mike_biasetti@Amherst-Systems.com

Have a useful M1 Feature you want to learn more about? Then tell us! Contact Mike at Michael_Biasetti@Amherst-Systems.com

Employment Opportunities at ASA

ASA Corp. is currently seeking imaginative electrical or computer engineering programmers to join our team. These individuals should have solid programming and test equipment experience, but more importantly, be willing to bring energy and the passion to dominate the industry to ASA.

ASA is also seeking an exceptional individual to provide the necessary care and feeding of our domestic and international sales channels. Experience in consulting work selling test and measurement equipment is a minimum, as is at least 7 years in sales and channel management. Experience with transactional selling methods is a strong plus.

ASA is also looking to fill the position of Marketing and Public Relations. Qualified candidates will have a degree in Communications, Marketing or related field. 

If you’re interested in employment at ASA click here for more information or send an e-mail with your resume to: jobs@Amherst-Systems.com.

The End of M1 Basic

ASA Corp. will no longer be selling M1 Basic™ as of June 30, 2007.  ASA believes that, due to its scalable pricing, M1 Basic is no longer a necessary product. ASA encourages current M1 Basic customers to upgrade to M1 Advanced™, which can be done by contacting sales@amherst-systems.com.