• Spectrum Analyzer – power spectrum and spectral measurements (noise floor, SFDR, SNR, THD, etc.)
• Digital Bus Analyzers (SPI, I²C, UART, Parallel)
• Stereo audio amplifier to drive external headphones or speakers with replicated AWG signals

The Digilent Analog Discovery 2™, developed in conjunction with Analog Devices®, is a multi-function instrument that allows users to measure, visualize, generate, record, and control mixed-signal circuits of all kinds. The low-cost Analog Discovery 2 is small enough to fit in your pocket but powerful enough to replace a stack of lab equipment, providing engineering students, hobbyists, and electronics enthusiasts the freedom to work with analog and digital circuits in virtually any environment, in or out of the lab. The analog and digital inputs and outputs can be connected to a circuit using simple wire probes; alternatively, the Analog Discovery BNC Adapter and BNC probes can be used to connect and utilize the inputs and outputs.

Analog Discovery 2 is the next generation of the very popular Analog Discovery.

• Ability to use an external power supply and consequently deliver more power to the user supplies. When USB-powered, the Analog Discovery 2 delivers to the user same power as the Analog Discovery.
• New enclosure with enhanced design and improved connector reliability.
• Improved signal/noise and crosstalk performances for both the scope and waveforms generator.
• Better defined bandwidth for both the scope and waveforms generator.

Analog Discovery 2's high-level block diagram is presented in Fig. 1 Above. The core of the Analog Discovery 2 is the Xilinx® Spartan®-6 FPGA (specifically, the XC6SLX16-1L device). The WaveForms application automatically programs the Discovery’s FPGA at start-up with a configuration file designed to implement a multi-function test and measurement instrument. Once programmed, the FPGA inside the Discovery communicates with the PC-based WaveForms application via a USB 2.0 connection. The WaveForms software works with the FPGA to control all the functional blocks of the Analog Discovery 2, including setting parameters, acquiring data, and transferring and storing data.

Signals in the Analog Input block, also called the Scope, use “SC” indexes to indicate they are related to the scope block. Signals in the Analog Output block, also called AWG, use “AWG” indexes, and signals in the Digital block use a D index – all of the instruments offered by the Discovery 2 and WaveForms use the circuits in these three blocks. Signal and equations also use certain naming conventions. Analog voltages are prefixed with a “V” (for voltage), and suffixes and indexes are used in various ways: to specify the location in the signal path (IN, MUX, BUF, ADC, etc.); to indicate the related instrument (SC, AWG, etc.); to indicate the channel (1 or 2); and to indicate the type of signal (P, N, or diff).