We often use MathLab or our own software to perform specialist signal analysis, which even on older LeCroy scopes was made easy thanks to a set of APIs.
But Windows allows me to run other software on the scope without the need for a separate PC.
Yes, boot times are, even with SSDs, longer than with a cheap embedded platform scope, but considering that any scope only reaches its full spec compliance after a warm-up period (usually around 20mins) who cares? These scopes are made for professional environments where they are normally powered on in the morning and switched off at night (or remain powered 24/7). LeCroy provided a new set which for the most part have stayed put but one fell off a few months ago that I thought had became a cat toy. When I got it, the knobs were sloppy and some were missing. The plastic continues to erode (it has a hard life sitting on my bench) and the steel is flimsy. To say the mechanics of the 64Xi are poor would be an understatement. It's not uncommon for me to force a trigger to make sure the scope is ready to capture. Then it waits for your trigger to arrive to recal. Power up boot time for the old LeCory Waverunner 64Xi with added RAM, last version of XP service pack and SSD: At 30 seconds, XP has loaded At 45 seconds it has initialized the hardware At 55 seconds it is triggering and displaying all four waveforms At 65 seconds it runs the first calibration It will then recal a fair amount while it continues to warm up, unless it's not triggering. From what I remember, installing XP slowed the boot times but I gained the time back with the SSD. Performance was so poor, it was faster to use GPIB than Ethernet!! One of my old LeCroy DSOs had Win2k installed.
The only exception to this was a Tektronix Arb where they were just starting to learn how to use Ethernet. I use Ethernet rather than GPIB to communicate with them and networking is easy. I have used a few other older Windows based Arbs and scopes. The two LeCroys also have more RAM and the faster of the two has a 1Gb Ethernet card which vastly improved data collection times. The 64Xi has been using an SSD for about 5 years now with no problems.
Internal preselection (can be switched off in analyzer mode).All commercial and military standards met.High speed time domain scan (FFT) option.Combination of CISPR 16-compliant EMI test receiver and high-end spectrum analyzer.Maximum-precision, standard-compliant EMI measurements at unparalleled measurement speed ( own it? please share by Add Your Own Review! )