An oscilloscope is an electronic device that is used to represent voltage of an electronic device. It is chiefly used to diagnose the working condition of any electric equipment. It represents one or more electric potential differences in a two-dimensional graph, with the horizontal axis representing time and the vertical axis showing voltage. Voltage is represented in the form of a single dot that goes from the left to the right of a screen called a graticule. Any deviation would cause the dot to more up or down on the screen.

Some oscilloscopes are connected to a PC that not only provides the display but also supplies control interface, networking, disc storage and even the electric power. There are known as PC oscilloscopes or PC based oscilloscopes. They are becoming very popular because of the increasing use of PCs and also the low cost involved. There are special oscilloscope software packages available that make the reading easier, even for novices and amateur users.

Oscilloscope software converts an ordinary PC into an oscilloscope. Signals received can be saved, printed, annotated with notes, analyzed and exported to other applications in the PC or outside. The data can also be saved on a floppy disk or a CD or even e-mailed. Oscilloscope software is very easy to install and use. It can be loaded onto Windows 95/98, 3.x, NT/2000, XP or ME operating systems. Some software packages also have several language versions. This software can be used with both desktop as well as laptop PCs.

Some oscilloscope software can collect 1 million samples with programmable alarm limits for each channel. Data transfer is also easy with simple copy and paste options. Data can be stored in the form of graphs or spreadsheets for easy analysis. Data can also be transferred through LAN, the internet or any other network since the software supports IP networking. Readings can be transferred using Dynamic Data Exchange as well. Display can be in the form of FFT or XY plots or other patterns. The best part is that it does not require any programming to be done by the user.

There are many brands of oscillation software products available: Scope, GageScope, PicoScope, DrDAQ etc. These can be downloaded online from the internet. There are also limited free demo versions available.