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Oscilloscopes are hardware that can be used to analyze digital and analog signals. They may be able to interface with a PC (USB) using software as well. logic analyzers are small, usually cheap pieces of hardware that can analyze digital signals only, and rely on software on a connected PC. IMO even the $10 analyzers are great for digital (troubleshooting I2C, SPI etc), and can analyze many channels at once. You only need a scope for analog.

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If I could only afford one, I would recommend the o-scope. Most firmware runs on bespoke hardware and the programmer can’t assume the hardware is abstracted away from the software. MANY bugs I’ve tracked down required electronics probing.

Thanks, yeah I know what they are but not sure whether we need to purchase real ones or the course has some simulations.

We have logic analyzers for just 10 bucks? Wow that's much more affordable than I thought. I thought both need like hundreds of bucks.

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