BERTScope offers PCI Express compliance testing for transmitters, receivers

OCTOBER 16, 2007 -- SyntheSys Research Inc. (search for SyntheSys Research) has introduced the PCIe Test Bench by BERTScope, designed to perform PCI Express transmitter and receiver physical-layer compliance testing at 2.5- and 5.0-GT/sec rates.

Rather than require multiple instruments to cover compliance testing, the PCIe Test Bench is designed to provide all equipment and accessories needed to make compliance measurements easy. At the heart of the new offering is the BERTScope S signal integrity analyzer platform, to which new capabilities have been added for 5-GT/sec compliance: The system provides all the jitter elements for receiver test, including coverage of the new requirement for low and high band random jitter (RJ) as well as the residual spread spectrum clocking signal, represented by a sinusoidal tone.

For transmitter compliance, measurements such as jitter and de-emphasis ratio are built in and can be performed quickly SyntheSys Research says. The test bench also includes the BERTScope CRj clock recovery with jitter spectrum analysis to round out the product's PCI Express testing capabilities.

Aimed at design and test engineers who work with chips and add-in cards, the PCIE Test bench includes the following items:

• PCIe Signal Integrity Analyzer by BERTScope with new stressed eye elements -- the basis for transmitter and receiver compliance testing at 2.5 and 5.0 GT/sec, available with bit rate coverage up to 7.5 Gbits/sec or optionally 12.5 Gbits/sec. Includes the ability to generate spread-spectrum clocks.
  
• BERTScope CRj with PCIe PLL analysis capability -- providing flexible clock recovery, jitter spectrum measurement to 90 MHz for transmitter jitter, and complete transmitter PLL analysis.
  
• Compliance Channel â�� conforming to the PCIe requirements for 5:1 voltage ratio as well as the 20-dB return loss specification.
  
• PCIe Compliance Baseboard version 2, pre-configured for external reference clock use. Used for transmitter and receiver testing at 2.5 and 5.0 GT/sec.
  
• PCIe 2.5-GT/sec transmitter compliance test software, providing automated measurements.
  
• All cables and adapters for a complete test setup.
  

In addition, the PCIe Test Bench has analysis capabilities beyond compliance, designed to allow fast characterization of margin and easy troubleshooting. Examples include the ability to generate spread-spectrum clocking (SSC) to test device performance in real-world conditions, and also an SSC waveform analysis feature that gives insight into a common area for BER issues.

The PCIe Test Bench is available 10 weeks ARO. Upgrade options are available for existing BERTScope customers.

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