Tektronix's PCI Express® 6.0 Receiver Test Solution for Next-Gen High-Speed Devices
October 10, 2022
News
BEAVERTON, OREGON. Tektronix, Inc., in collaboration with Anritsu Corporation, announced a solution that enables testing of PCIe® 6.0 (Base) receivers and transmitters and addresses the demands of next-generation high performance systems. With this release, Tektronix provides a cohesive PCIe 6.0 transmitter and receiver test solution that delivers faster test times, higher-quality measurements, and an intuitive user interface.
Engineers behind the latest technology must be able to test data being transferred at ever-increasing speeds, and PCIe iis often used as a de-facto standard in data-intensive markets such as the cloud, data centers, and artificial intelligence (AI). The recently released Gen 6.0 standard provides fast speeds to handle those data-driven workloads, but testing can present challenges to companies charged with integrating PCIe 6.0 on their devices.
Validating a PCIe receiver is difficult because of the sensitivity of calibrating the stressed eye signal across a high loss channel. Tektronix's PCIe receiver test solutions thoroughly test designs at the required bit error rate (BER) target. Step-by-step tools provide link training routines for the Anritsu MP1900A BERT to ensure the receiver is tested accurately.
The Tektronix PCIe 6.0 Base Rx Solution features 64 GT/s (PAM4) Rx calibration and novel algorithms that efficiently address the difficulty of calibrating the transmitter's additional pre-cursor added to the 6.0 Base specification.
Tektronix's fully automated PAMJET DSP tool provides critical 64 GT/s jitter and noise measurements with instrument noise compensation. This solution uses 6.0 Base Tx solution techniques to address receiver challenges at the most recent data rate introduced by the PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG®).
The TekRxTest automation software provides a single control panel with the power to manage a Tektronix oscilloscope and Anritsu BERT during receiver calibration, as well as a software wizard to guide users through short- and long-channel calibration steps, resulting in an accurate and repeatable 64 GT/s calibration.
"A combined solution integrating the Anritsu MP1900A and Tektronix DPO70000SX Real-Time Oscilloscopes delivers an innovative improvement to the market and a complete physical layer PCIe test system that can be expanded to PCIe 6.0 as the market continues to develop technologies for high-speed networks," says Kazuhiro Fujinuma, director of solution marketing department service infrastructure division for Anritsu Corporation.
Tektronix also partnered with Synopsys on early validation of their PCIe 6.0 DesignWare® IP, providing early-stage prototypes for Tektronix's collaboration with Anritsu.
"The PCIe 6.0 interface is instrumental to enabling real-time data connectivity with low latency and high throughput in HPC, storage, and AI applications," says John Koeter, senior vice president of marketing and strategy for IP at Synopsys. "Conducting early, accurate and efficient validation of the Synopsys silicon-proven PCIe 6.0 IP with Tektronix solutions demonstrates that the IP adheres to the latest PCI-SIG specifications, enabling designers to deliver interoperable products that include Synopsys PCIe 6.0 controller, PHY, verification, and Integrity and Data Encryption (IDE) IP faster and with less risk."
For more information, visit Tek.com/pci-express.
