In a few years, ultrasound research platforms, also known as open scanners, have become a great tool for facilitating the experimental activities of ultrasound labs. An ideal platform should be easily programmed to permit the transmission of arbitrary sequences of arbitrary waveforms, the acquisition of huge amounts of raw echo-data, the visualization of the region of interest and, possibly, the real-time implementation of novel processing methods. In this talk, the design criteria followed in the recent development of our 256-channel research scanner, ULA-OP 256, to meet such requirements, are reported, and some illustrative applications are presented.