TRADE NEWS: Agilent Technologies Broadens USB Test Portfolio with Protocol Analysis Solution, New Oscilloscope

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) today announced the expansion of its test solution portfolio for USB 2.0 and 3.0. The portfolio now includes an integrated USB 3.0 protocol analysis solution, which results from a collaboration with Ellisys, and the recently introduced Infiniium 9000 Series mixed signal oscilloscope, which includes fast, integrated 2GSa/s digital channels and an in-scope protocol viewer for USB.

“We’re pleased to partner with Agilent to bring valuable vertical solutions to SuperSpeed USB developers.”

Agilent integrated the API of the Ellisys EX280 USB 3.0 protocol analyzer hardware into its N5990A test automation software platform for physical layer test automation.

The development of USB 3.0 SuperSpeed devices requires automated test tools for characterization and compliance/pre-compliance testing at a 10x higher speed class compared to USB 2.0. Physical layer compliance testing is becoming mandatory for both the transmitter and the receiver side of the devices. Protocol testing capabilities are not only relevant to system integrators, but also ease the physical layer testing with protocol-aware error counting, like frame error ratio (FER) counting. The USB-IF requires the receiver to successfully receive scrambled zeros, which is validated by reading the device’s built-in error counter during the Rx compliance test.

Agilent offers a complete USB 3.0 test solution for transmitter and receiver test, comprised of a DSA91304A Infiniium oscilloscope, the U7243A USB 3.0 compliance test software, the U7242A USB 3.0 test fixture, a pattern checker and pattern generator based on the J-BERT N4903A/B high-performance serial BERT, an N5181A MXG RF analog signal generator, 81150A pulse function arbitrary noise generator and the N5990A test automation software platform from Agilent’s partner BitifEye Digital Test Solutions.

Agilent also offers an extensive set of USB 2.0 test solutions:

The Infiniium 9000 Series mixed signal oscilloscopes provide analog bandwidths of up to 4GHz and built-in logic and protocol analysis. In addition to impressive analog specifications the Infiniium 9000 includes fast, integrated 2GSa/s digital channels and an in-scope protocol viewer for USB.
The N5416A compliance test software for Infiniium oscilloscopes gives a fast and reliable way to verify USB electrical specification compliance for USB 2.0 hosts, hubs and devices.
Agilent offers a range of low, full and high speed test fixtures that meet the requirements of the USB-IF compliance test specification. For low and full speed compliance testing an E2646A SQuIDD (Signal Quality inrush Droop Drop) test fixture is required.
The Agilent J-BERT N4903B high-performance serial BERT provides the most integrated and accurate receiver tolerance testing. It generates pattern sequences and offers calibrated jitter injection, SSC and ISI.
The Agilent USB receiver test software N5990A option 102 complements the N5416A compliance test suite with additional receiver tests including intra-pair skew, jitter tolerance, carrier skew, squelch test and differential sensitivity tests.

“This collaboration with Agilent brings together our SuperSpeed USB protocol test and analysis capabilities with high-performance, world-class physical layer test and measurement tools to meet receiver testing and other specific physical layer test requirements of silicon manufacturers working to bring SuperSpeed USB to the technology marketplace,” said Mario Pasquali, Ellisys co-founder and president of Products. “We’re pleased to partner with Agilent to bring valuable vertical solutions to SuperSpeed USB developers.”

“Having advance access to measurements enables developers of cutting-edge solutions to address potential design issues early in the design cycle and get products to market faster,” said Jim Choate, program manager USB applications at Agilent. “Agilent offers a complete portfolio of USB test solutions and we are looking forward to closely work with Ellisys to further address the upcoming USB protocol analysis challenges. We aim to ensure our solutions help engineers meet the needs of testing for USB 2.0 and 3.0 compliance.”

Additional information about Agilent’s USB test solutions is available at www.agilent.com/find/usb. High-resolution images are available at www.agilent.com/find/usb_images.

A backgrounder about USB technology and Agilent’s solutions is available at www.agilent.com/find/usb_backgrounder.

Agilent’s Digital Test Standards Program

Agilent’s solutions for digital applications are driven and supported by Agilent experts who are involved in various international standard committees. We call it the Agilent Digital Test Standards Program. Our experts are active in the Joint Electronic Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC), PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG^®), Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), USB-Implementers Forum (USB-IF), Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Alliance, and many others. Our involvement in these standards groups and their related workshops, plugfests, and seminars enables Agilent to bring the right solutions to the market when our customers need them.

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is the world’s premier measurement company and a technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company’s 19,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenues of $5.8 billion in fiscal 2008. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com.

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