Talking in Code: HP 1601L

The HP 1601L Logic Analyzer (right) could track a digital system’s operations and translate them into a digital display of binary code. When it was introduced, most computer debugging and logic analysis had to be done using oscilloscopes, which had difficulty tracking large numbers of signals simultaneously and thus couldn’t keep up with the increasingly sophisticated devices of the computer revolution. By rendering a system’s operations in the same system of 1s and 0s used to represent code on a printed page, the 1601L offered programmers an unprecedented ability to monitor their systems more holistically and troubleshoot their designs.