Teledyne LeCroy Announces New PCIe® External Cable 3.0 Interposer and Adapter

DesignCon®2016, Jan 19, 2016 – Teledyne LeCroy, the worldwide leader in protocol test solutions, today announced the availability of an interposer probe for analysis of PCIe External Cable 3.0 ports that utilize the new PCI Express External Cabling Specification Revision 3.0, developed by the PCI-SIG®. The PCIe External Cable 3.0 Interposer, which is used with Summit™ Protocol Analyzers, enables PCIe® bus traffic between a system board and storage devices using PCIe External Cable 3.0 cables to be monitored, captured and recorded for protocol analysis. The PCIe External Cable 3.0 interposer will support analysis for PCIe host interfaces such as SATA Express (AHCI/PCIe) and NVM Express (NVMe) at data rates from 2.5 GT/s up to 8 GT/s, and link widths from x1 to x8. For x16 link widths two PCIe External Cable 3.0 interposers can be used together with two synced protocol analyzers to show all transaction data.

The new PCIe External Cable 3.0 class cables are becoming the new standard for external cables for storage and enterprise systems. This cable type is defined in the PCI Express External Cabling Specification Revision 3.0, developed by the PCI-SIG. One cable can manage link widths from x1 to x4. Larger link widths can be achieved by adding additional cables. For example, a x8 link combines two x4 links. The technology supports PCIe 3.0 speeds, enabling high I/O throughput while providing the necessary cable management demanded by next generation systems.

This cable also uses the Cable Management Interface (CMI) which is important to storage systems because it allows in-band host software to communicate with an NVM subsystem through sideband signaling to provide out-of-band control and monitoring of device specifics. The PCI Express External Cabling Specification 3.0 uses an I²C interface to enable: discovery of the cabling characteristics, allow passage of sideband signals such as PERST# and WAKE#, and to enable future functionality such as NVME-MI, the Non-Volatile Memory Management Interface.

The PCIe External Cable 3.0 Cable Interposer supports I²C side band signaling by passing it electrically through the link. The sideband signaling PERST# and WAKE# and other functionality can be monitored by the protocol analyzer through the interposer, where protocol issues and performance metrics can be analyzed and debugged. RefCLK# signals external to the cable are available on the PCIe External Cable 3.0 interposer for use with the protocol analyzer.

In addition to the new interposer, an adapter is also available for testing devices that use the SFF-8644 connector with PCIe External Cable 3.0 class cables. The adapter is a PCIe half-width CEM form factor plug-in card that allows connection of a PCIe External Cable 3.0 device to a standard PCIe slot. The adapter supports x1 to x16 link widths (using up to four PCIe External Cable 3.0 class cables) at speeds up to 8 GT/s.

"Managed cable topologies like the new PCIe External Cable 3.0 class cables are part of the advanced infrastructure of NVMe Management," said John Wiedemeier, Product Marketing Manager in the Protocol Solutions Group, Teledyne LeCroy. "This new probing and adapter solution will support the new PCIe External Cable 3.0 specification for cabling technology of next generation high speed storage systems that incorporate NVMe SSD devices."

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

The PCIe External Cable 3.0 Interposer and PCIe External Cable 3.0 Adapter are each available to order now. For additional information, contact Teledyne LeCroy at 1-800-5LeCroy (1-800-553-2769) or visit Teledyne LeCroy's web site at teledynelecroy.com.

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Teledyne LeCroy is a leading manufacturer of advanced test instruments that measure, analyze, and verify complex electronic signals. The Company offers high-performance oscilloscopes and protocol test solutions used by electronic design engineers in a wide range of application and end markets. Teledyne LeCroy is based in Chestnut Ridge, N.Y. For more information, visit Teledyne LeCroy's website at teledynelecroy.com.

PCI-SIG is the consortium that owns and manages PCI specifications as open industry standards. The organization defines industry standard I/O (input/output) specifications consistent with the needs of its members. Currently, PCI-SIG is comprised of nearly 800 industry-leading member companies. To join PCI-SIG, and for a list of the Board of Directors, visit www.pcisig.com.

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

PCI-SIG, PCI Express and PCIe are trademarks or registered trademarks of PCISIG.