A system and a method for measuring and quantitatively analyzing the jitter in repetitive electrical signals in a chip using a tester are described. The tester sorts chips based on the jitter measurements, thereby eliminating the need for external instrumentation. The waveform is sampled by the tester at various points of a period over a large number of periods and results are collected. The data is analyzed to determine the total range where the waveform is found to undergo a transition. The transition area is further analyzed to pinpoint the precise location of the transition for each period of the repetitive waveform. The data is used to quantify the jitter by means of statistical analyses, the results of which are used by the tester to sort the chips by comparing the calculated jitter characteristics to predetermined criteria.