Teledyne LeCroy Announces New NVMe-MI Conformance Tests

Santa Clara, CA, December 12, 2016 – Teledyne LeCroy, the worldwide leader in protocol test solutions, today announced the availability of a new set of storage conformance tests targeted at testing NVMe™ (NVM Express®) SSDs that support the NVM Express Management Interface (NVMe-MI™) specification. NVMe SSDs have enabled high performance storage systems and are now featuring out-of-band management through MCTP using PCIe and SMBus binding protocols which work with the NVMe-MI protocol. The NVMe Management Interface Conformance Tests use the Summit T34 protocol analyzer and Summit Z3-16 protocol exerciser/test platform with SMBus support to capture, record, decode and generate SMBus traffic alongside PCIe traffic. The combination of these new tests and Summit protocol analyzer and exerciser hardware will make it possible to conduct NVMe-MI conformance testing at future NVMe Plugfests hosted by UNH-IOL.

"The NVMe Management Interface is an important part of delivering a robust solid-state drive solution for Datacenter environments," said Amber Huffman, President of NVM Express, Inc. "The new NVMe Management Interface Conformance tests from Teledyne LeCroy will help companies validate their products and better adhere to the standard defined by the NVMe storage community."

NVM Express, Inc. is the organization that developed the NVMe, NVMe-MI, and NVMe over Fabrics specifications. Periodic NVMe Plugfests are conducted during the year through the University of New Hampshire's InterOperability Lab (UNH-IOL) in Durham, New Hampshire. Storage companies from all over the world that manufacture NVMe SSDs gather together at these events to ensure their devices comply with the NVMe specification. The plugfest events provide high confidence that products will work well across a broad range of systems. The NVMe Management Interface (NVMe-MI) Specification was ratified by NVM Express, Inc., in November of 2015. Teledyne LeCroy has created conformance tests based on the NVMe-MI 1.0 specification and has donated these tests to be used as part of future NVMe Plugfest events. NVM Express, Inc. is working with the storage community and UNH-IOL to define the details of the NVMe-MI conformance testing program in early 2017.

"There has been a lot of interest in NVMe conformance testing. Many companies want to ensure that their SSDs are technically compatible with the specification. At UNH-IOL, we are looking forward to adding NVMe-MI testing to our conformance testing." said David Woolf, Research and Development, Datacenter Technologies at UNH-IOL. "The new NVMe Management Interface Conformance Tests from Teledyne LeCroy will give us the necessary tools to test NVMe-MI enabled SSDs in upcoming plugfests."

"Teledyne LeCroy was the first NVMe protocol tool provider for conformance testing and recently took part in helping develop the new NVMe Management Interface Specification," said John Wiedemeier, Senior Product Marketing Manager in the Protocol Solutions Group, Teledyne LeCroy. "The availability of the new NVMe Management Interface Conformance Tests for the Summit T34 Protocol Analyzer and Z3-16 Exerciser with SMBus Support conformance platform will help ensure compatibility and compliance to achieve high quality systems in the storage industry."

In 2010, Teledyne LeCroy was the first company to introduce a PCI Express protocol analyzer supporting NVM Express (NVMe). Since that time Teledyne LeCroy has added decoding for AHCI/PCIe and specific probing for U.2 (SFF-8639) and M.2 connector-based storage system and devices. Integrating these PCIe SSD technologies into a single protocol analyzer, and adding targeted storage probing solutions, provides developers versatile tools that can show essential details regarding proper data transmission and bus performance. These tools have been critical to the success of PCIe SSD interoperability testing that has occurred over the last few years.

The NVMe Management Interface (NVMe-MI) Conformance Tests are currently available to order. For additional information, contact Teledyne LeCroy at 1-800-5LeCroy (1-800-553-2769) or visit Teledyne LeCroy's web site at teledynelecroy.com.

Teledyne LeCroy is a leading manufacturer of advanced oscilloscopes, protocol analyzers, and other test instruments that verify performance, validate compliance, and debug complex electronic systems quickly and thoroughly. Since its founding in 1964, the Company has focused on incorporating powerful tools into innovative products that enhance "Time-to-Insight". Faster time to insight enables users to rapidly find and fix defects in complex electronic systems, dramatically improving time-to-market for a wide variety of applications and end markets. Teledyne LeCroy is based in Chestnut Ridge, N.Y. For more information, visit Teledyne LeCroy's website at teledynelecroy.com.

© 2016 by Teledyne LeCroy. All rights reserved. Specifications are subject to change without notice.

PCI-SIG, PCI Express and PCIe are registered trademarks of PCI-SIG. Summit and CATC Trace are trademarks of Teledyne LeCroy. NVM Express marks are trademarks of NVM Express, Inc.