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PCI Express 4.0 x8 Protocol Analyzer

29 November 2017 – Teledyne LeCroy announced a new PCI Express (PCIe) protocol analyzer for capturing, recording and analyzing PCIe 4.0 signals. Teledyne LeCroy’s Summit T48 joins the Summit T416 as the second protocol analyzer to be released supporting the PCIe 4.0 specification. The new Summit T48 protocol analyzer supports up to 8 lanes for protocol analysis with specifications that are otherwise consistent with the Summit T416.

Companies that are interested in testing PCIe 4.0 based I/O cards such as Storage Controllers, Ethernet and Infiniband adapters, Fibre Channel HBAs and others will now be able to get the full suite of analyzer functions, capabilities and views, while being able to better manage their costs. SSD storage applications will also benefit from the integrated support for SSD bus protocols such as PCIe/ NVMe/ SMBus/ NVMe-MI/ TCG and others. Teledyne LeCroy’s wide range of high speed interposers and probes provide full flexibility and connectivity to CEM and other form factor sockets on system boards as well as solder down and mid-bus probes.

When combined with Teledyne LeCroy’s Summit Z416 protocol exerciser, the Summit T48 will provide a deeper understanding of test results on a variety of test configurations. The Summit T48 protocol analyzer features support for the PCIe 4.0 architecture at a speed of 16GT/s and up to x8 lane width. Its protocol analyzer memory buffer can be configured up to 64GB, which is advantageous for users requiring long protocol recordings. The protocol analyzer can be controlled through USB or controlled through 1000baseT remotely Ethernet. Two Summit T48 protocol analyzers can be expanded together providing PCIe 4.0 protocol analysis on a x16 link. The Summit T48 protocol analyzer can also be synchronized with other high speed protocol analyzers from Teledyne LeCroy using CrossSync, functionality that enables time‐aligned packet traffic as well as cross triggering from multiple high‐speed serial busses.

Furthermore, as PCIe systems are moving toward implementing IO virtualization, the Summit T48 protocol analyzer is fully capable of decoding and describing virtualized systems in a multitude of different configurations. The CATC Trace View, along with the recently added spreadsheet view, NVMe queue characterization tables, and LTSSM state views help users quickly come up to speed on how well their devices and systems are behaving in real world environments. Developers that need to get down to the byte level and see traffic just before and after deskew can do this with the BitTracer feature. BitTracer records the bytes exactly as they come across the link, allowing debugging of PHY layer problems and combining the features of a logic analyzer format with a decoded protocol analyzer format.

“To better service our customers, Teledyne LeCroy has added a PCIe 4.0 x8 link width protocol analyzer to the PCIe 4.0 family of products that include the PCIe 4.0-based Summit T416 protocol analyzer and Summit Z416 exerciser. Providing a second, lower cost protocol analyzer platform will help development and test groups reach their overall time-to-market objectives”, said John Wiedemeier, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Teledyne LeCroy’s PCI Express Group. “The Summit T48 protocol analyzer is ideal for computer storage development and testing. The Summit T4 series is built on a strong PCIe 4.0 test tool foundation that Teledyne LeCroy has laid out over the last two years.”

When it comes to storage technologies, the Summit T48 protocol analyzer features the latest in storage protocol decoding including NVM Express (NVMe), SATA Express, SCSI Express and others. It is also the only protocol analyzer to fully support the latest in NVMe management technology described in the NVM Express Management Interface (NVMe-MI) protocol specification. For example, unlike other PCIe analyzers, Summit analyzers can simultaneously capture in-band (PCIe Bus) and out-of-band (SMBus) protocol traffic. In addition, a new hardware extended recording mode for NVMe applications has been added to assist debugging SSD anomalies that are difficult to find. Finally, communications between applications using the Trusted Computing Group’s Enterprise and Opal security can be decoded to confirm if accurate transmission of data is occurring.

The Summit protocol analyzers use high speed interposers capable of tapping any device under test (DUT). These interposers utilize the T.A.P.4 technology from Teledyne LeCroy that ensures transparent acquisition of 16GT/s through PCIe transmissions between hosts and devices. The interposers come in x1, x4, x8 and x16 lane widths that can cover testing requirements for all CEM connectors. In addition, Teledyne LeCroy offers a Test Platform, based on the PCIe 4.0 architecture, which features a two CEM-socket active backplane supporting 16GT/s bus transactions for testing with power supplies capable of supplying up to 225W of power. This Test Platform contains an embedded high-speed interposer that can capture traffic between two CEM-sockets. Ideally, the test platform can be used for testing with the Summit Z416 protocol exerciser and the device under test.

Availability

The Summit T48 Protocol Analyzer, based on PCIe 4.0 x1, x4, and x8 Interposers and the Test Platform leveraging the PCIe 4.0 architecture are currently available to order.

www.teledynelecroy.com/