Oscilloscopes offer test options for serial interfaces to 5 Gb/s
Munich, Germany. Rohde & Schwarz has announced new test options for the 6-GHz R&S RTO2000 Series oscilloscopes that make these instruments suitable for testing fast communications interfaces. The new options support the 5 Gb/s SuperSpeed USB and PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 interfaces. There is also a new solution for USB power delivery (USB-PD).
Fast serial communications interfaces such as USB and PCIe have found their way into the designs of many electronic circuits. When testing and debugging circuits, developers need easy-to-use tools that provide comprehensive support for these interfaces. Rohde & Schwarz’s solution consists of the following components: the R&S RTO2064 oscilloscope, the test options for the various interface standards, and modular R&S RT-ZM60 broadband probes for contacting the DUT. Rohde & Schwarz is expanding its offering with the following new test options: triggering and decoding software options for SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.1 Gen1), PCIe 1.1/2.0, and USB-PD, plus a compliance test option for PCIe 1.1/2.0.
All the new triggering and decoding options support users looking for faults that occur during SuperSpeed USB, PCIe 2.0, and USB-PD transmission. The options trigger on user-defined protocol trigger events and decode the transmitted serial protocol, enabling the R&S RTO2000 to display additional time- and frequency-domain measurements time-correlated to the protocol trigger event. The cause of a fault is often recognizable at a glance. The analysis results can also be displayed in a table with all protocol details and associated timestamps. The ability to analyze at different protocol levels is another unique feature. For example, users can select between a simple bit view, a symbol view, or a specific protocol view with frame start, address, and data in order to track down protocol errors to the lowest bit level. Now developers have a powerful tool for fast analysis and debugging.
For PCIe, Rohde & Schwarz expanded its compliance test suite to include compliance tests for PCIe 1.1/2.0. Software options based on the PCI-SIG standard post-processing analysis software assess the signal integrity against this standard. The test option permits automated compliance verification of the physical layer up to 2.5 Gbit/s.
The new R&S RTO-K61 USB 3.1 Gen1 T&D, R&S RTO-K72 PCIe 1.1/2.0 T&D, and R&S RTO-K81 PCIe 1.1/2.0 compliance test software options are specifically designed for the R&S RTO2000 oscilloscope with 6 GHz bandwidth. These options as well as the R&S RTE/RTO-K63 USB-PD T&D options are now available from Rohde & Schwarz. They are being officially introduced at the embedded world 2017 trade fair in Nuremberg this week.
About the Author
Rick Nelson
Contributing Editor
Rick is currently Contributing Technical Editor. He was Executive Editor for EE in 2011-2018. Previously he served on several publications, including EDN and Vision Systems Design, and has received awards for signed editorials from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. He began as a design engineer at General Electric and Litton Industries and earned a BSEE degree from Penn State.