50 years in electronics: Hall of Fame - Test
Agilent Technologies, a diversified test and healthcare system firm, came into being in 1999 when it was spun out of Hewlett-Packard. But HP had its own history in et test market. Back in 1960 it created its first sampling oscilloscope borrowing digital computer technology. In 1985 is introduced the first microprocessor based network analyser.
Tektronix was founded in 1947 when it launched its first test products CRT-based, triggered oscilloscopes. Over the years it had a computer terminal and video production equipment businesses, but unlike HP, it did not significantly diversify outside of its core test business. In 2007, Tektronix was acquired by Danaher Corporation for $2.85bn.
Started in 1933 in a Munich apartment, Rohde & Schwarz started producing radio monitor systems in the 1940s, its first network analyser in 1950 and its first spectrum analyser in 1986. In 2010, the privately-owned company surprised the test market by launching its first oscilloscopes.
National Instruments was founded in 1976 and it developed a GPIB bus-based product to connect scientific instruments to microcomputers. It created the LabVIEW graphical development software in 1986 and launched its concept for modular computer-based systems connected by its PXI bus in 1997.
Marconi Instruments
was the test instrument business of GEC. In 1998, with the break up of GEC, it was sold to US military test firm IFR Systems, which was itself taken over by Aeroflex in 2002. Still with offices in Stevenage, the company’s RF test technology is used in products such as the 7100 LTE digital radio test set.