Agilent Technologies debuts 28 Gb/s multiplexer for J-BERT, ParBERT

JANUARY 19, 2010 -- Agilent Technologies Inc. has announced the N4876A 2:1 Multiplexer, designed to extend the generator data rate of the J-BERT N4903B and ParBERT 81250A up to 28 Gbps. Design and test engineers in the semiconductor, communications, storage, and computing industries can now accurately characterize the next generation of serial interfaces to optimize their design margins, says a company representative.

The first public showing of the N4876A is January 20 at the Fiber Optics Expo 2010, Agilent Booth EAST 1-43. New SERDES physical interconnects, electrical interconnects in backplanes, and communication or storage networks will operate at data rates beyond 12.5 Gb/s. For example, the Optical Internetworking Forum defined that Common Electrical I/O backplanes operate at data rates between 19.9 and 28 Gb/s; IEEE 802.3ba, 100GBase-LR4, and -ER4 are operating at 25.78125 Gbps; and 32x Fibre Channel is expected to operate at 28.05 Gbps.

Agilent’s 2:1 Multiplexer doubles the pattern generator data rate by multiplexing two generator channels. The Multiplexer extends the variable generator data rate of J-BERT N4903B up to 28.4 Gb/s and of ParBERT 81250A up to 27.0 Gb/s. To enable multiplexing on J-BERT, a second channel option of N4903B is available.

The Multiplexer allows accurate characterization by providing excellent output signal performance with variable output amplitudes up to 1.8 Vpp; transition times of less than 20 ps (20 percent to 80 percent); and intrinsic jitter of less than 1 ps rms. However, for jitter tolerance testing of receivers, the Multiplexer is transparent to jitter coming from J-BERT or ParBERT.

“By expanding the data rate range of our BERTs up to 28 Gbps, we offer R&D and validation teams an affordable upgrade path without compromising our world-class performance,” said Jürgen Beck, general manager of Agilent’s Digital Photonic Test product line.

The Agilent 28 Gbps N4876A Multiplexer can be ordered starting in March 2010 and is priced at $39,500. The Agilent J-BERT N4903B Option 002 “pattern and PRBS on auxiliary data output” can be ordered starting in March 2010 at a price of $24,800.

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