March 7, 2012. Tektronix has announced the availability of an automated test solution for the latest Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) Compliance Test Specification (CTS) 1.2. In addition, Tektronix announced its membership in the MOST Cooperation, the de-facto standard for multimedia and infotainment networking in the automotive industry.
Tektronix's automated test solution for the MHL CTS 1.2 covers transmitter, receiver, and dongle testing for both physical (PHY) and protocol layers. This one box solution features PHY and protocol testing for easier and faster debug and analysis and compliance testing, as used by MHL Authorized Test Centers (ATC) or anyone wanting to develop compliant MHL solutions.
Developed by the MHL Consortium, the MHL specification defines a high-definition (HD) video and digital audio interface for connecting mobile phones and portable devices to HDTVs and other home entertainment products. Tektronix announced a comprehensive test solution based on the MHL CTS 1.1 in August of last year. As an active contributor to the standard, Tektronix has moved quickly to provide testing support for the latest MHL CTS 1.2 specification update that was released on March 2, 2012.
“Tektronix has worked closely with Simplay Labs to provide an MHL test system with enhanced value-added features,” said Joseph Lias, president of Simplay Labs. “Simplay Labs is dedicated to providing advanced testing solutions for standards-based consumer electronics products, and we are looking forward to continuing our successful collaboration with Tektronix to support fully compliant, high-performance MHL products in the marketplace.”
Engineers designing and validating the MHL physical and link layers of their devices face constant pressure to become more efficient while minimizing capital expenditures. Tektronix’ MHL protocol analyzer software is built right into the same DPO/DSA/MSO70000 Series oscilloscope used for traditional physical layer testing to provide a complete MHL protocol and PHY test solution. Designers of MHL technology can obtain a seamless correlation between physical and link layers, speeding up test time and lowering equipment costs by thousands of dollars.
“The MHL specification continues to evolve, making time-to-market for new products supporting the standard of utmost importance to our customers in the MHL design community,” said Mike Rizzo, Manager of Oscilloscope Solutions, Tektronix. “Not only are we closely mirroring the enhancements made to the MHL test specification, but we are delivering a solution that offers a simpler set-up, integrated PHY/Protocol support, and vastly less expensive than competitive test offerings.”
Testing efficiency is further enhanced with direct-synthesis-based receiver and dongle testing that provides accurate MHL signal generation, allowing the tuning of numerous parameters and attributes, necessary to meet MHL CTS 1.2 requirements. The direct-synthesis solution provides easier, more repeatable test set-ups and lower cost compared to complex sink-based solutions for generating signal impairments.
Tektronix also announced its membership to the MOST Cooperation, which is the de-facto standard for multimedia and infotainment networking in the automotive industry (MOST stands for Media Oriented Systems Transport). By becoming a member, Tektronix can now further help engineers who are faced with complex challenges in validating their designs under resource and time-to-market constraints.
The MOST Cooperation is the organization through which the technology is standardized and refined so that it continues to stay abreast of the latest technology requirements. Today it consists of 16 international carmakers and more than 60 key component suppliers.
The MOST membership enables Tektronix to develop and offer tailored and accredited test solutions for industrial customers today and in the future. Currently the Tektronix oscilloscopes already offer physical layer (PHY) test, hardware based triggers and decoding for automotive specific busses like CAN, LIN and FlexRay. As a market leader in this industry we are committed to offer the tools for today and tomorrow`s automotive busses.
“MOST technology has emerged as a global standard for implementing current and future requirements for multimedia networking in automobiles. Tektronix oscilloscopes, best-in-class measurement solutions and automated tools overcome the toughest signal integrity challenges faced by MOST designers,” said Trevor Smith, EMEA technical marketing manager for oscilloscopes at Tektronix. “Tektronix MOST test tools provide complete jitter and eye-diagram analysis tools plus limit testing, results logging and reporting. Applications range from device and system debug and characterization to short-run functional test and production.”
Tektronix will present measurement solutions for the automotive industry, such as the revolutionary MDO4000 Mixed Domain Oscilloscope and DPO7000 series Midrange Oscilloscopes for the first time to a large audience interested in automotive infotainment at the MOST Forum in Stuttgart/Esslingen on March 20.
Tektronix, www.tektronix.com
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