The digital waveform generator approximates a linear waveform with a staircase waveform with 100 mV steps. Since the waveform is generated digitally (the digital-to-analog converter clock speed is 1 MHz), only discrete scan rates are allowed because the step time is obtained by dividing the clock speed by integer values. The allowable scan rates (shown T1) are given by the equation:
Scan Rate (mV/s) = 100,000/n, where n is an integer
Thus, if a scan rate is entered that does not match the allowed values, the software will automatically change it to the nearest allowed value. The maximum scan rate allowed is 10,000 mV/s due to hardware limitations.