Products
Protocol Analyzers

Sierra M122A

The Sierra M122A is Teledyne LeCroy’s two port SAS / SATA analyzer with special licensing to allow 6 Gb/s protocol capture. This multifunction platform is available with an integrated traffic generation option capable of host and device emulation. There is also a “Jammer” option for stress testing at the system and component level. This model of the Sierra M122A is configured for 6Gbps SAS & SATA protocol capture and can be field-upgraded to support 12Gb/s SAS testing.

Explore Sierra M122A Explore Sierra M122A
Sierra M122A image
  • products tab image
  • overview tab image
  • product details tab image
  • specs tab image
  • options tab image
Sierra T244  The Industry's first SAS 4.0 protocol analyzer provides accurate and reliable capture of up to four SAS 24 Gb/s physical links for efficient test and debug of next generation storage systems.
Sierra M244  The industry's first SAS 4.0 protocol analyzer / jammer / exerciser system for testing next generation storage systems, devices and software.
Sierra M124A  The flagship four port analyzer, exerciser and error injection system provides the most accurate and reliable capture of SAS 12 Gb/s protocol for fast debug, analysis and problem solving.
Sierra M122A  Two port Serial ATA (SATA) & Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) analyzer / exerciser platform; Supports 6Gb/s (upgradeable to support 12Gb/s SAS)
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is the next-generation replacement of SCSI Ultra320. SAS is a serialized protocol. The serial interface offers several benefits over the existing SCSI parallel bus; allowing for high availability, complex storage topologies, and a lower cost structure.
High Availability: As with SATA, Serial Attached SCSI is a high-speed, point-to-point technology initially designed to operate at speeds up to 6Gb/sec. System designers have found that point-to-point serial connections are inherently more reliable than shared bandwidth parallel connections. As a result, point-to-point serial connections have become the preferred method for implementing high-availability systems. SAS based disk drives are dual ported, taking advantage of this feature. This is a key requirement of high-availability SANs that call for redundant paths to all devices in the system.
Complex Storage Environments: SAS storage environments usually consist of a mixture of disk drives, host bus adapters and expanders. SAS allows for addressing of over 16,000 devices. SAS Expanders are routing devices that forward service requests between the source and destination devices. Expanders can be attached to other expanders, disk drives, and other hosts. An important characteristic of Expanders is their ability to aggregate bandwidth by combining multiple physical links into a "Wide" port. These wide ports can function as intelligent switches and can independently send commands across one physical path with data being returned over a different physical path. This increases the complexity of SAS test and debug because it requires users to monitor multiple links concurrently to record all DWORDs associated with a single SCSI transaction. The usage of expanders also allows for usage of a storage concept called Zoning. Zoning allows administrators to restrict access to devices by other devices. Applications of this include separating storage systems within a company by department.
Lower Cost Structure: Serial Attached SCSI also contains support for SATA drives in its storage environments. This allows support for both enterprise-class performance offered by SAS and low cost storage with SATA drives in the same system. Since the cost of the SAS infrastructure is expected to be comparable to SATA, it is likely that SAS will be the preferred interface. Since both SAS and SATA drives can be used in this environment, it will simplify and standardize the storage infrastructure, allowing for the ability to choose which drive will best fit individual storage needs.
Protocol Analysis
SAS Test and Verification: LeCroy's protocol analysis tools are designed from the ground up to address these unique characteristics of SAS including wide-links and Serial ATA interoperability. Sierra’s analysis and design suites are developed specifically for use with the SAS and SATA protocols, and provide extensive protocol decoding, expert error analysis, and complete user support when decoding and viewing the recorded traffic. This extensive protocol support, combined with the different traffic views, advanced triggering, data filtering, traffic generation, and error injection capability, allows engineers to rapidly become familiar with SAS- and SATA-specific issues, and quickly understand new issues the first time they encounter them. Every engineer becomes a protocol expert with the support of Sierra’s detailed expert analysis.

 

Flexible, Cost Effective 6G Protocol Test System
Based on the highly regarded Sierra M124A validation system, the M122A offers the same high-fidelity probe design in a lower-cost, 2-port, 6Gb/s configuration. The M122A can record two independent SAS or SATA links simultaneously. The platform can be upgraded to support 12Gb/s SAS plus traffic generation (Trainer) or error injection (InFusion) capabilities.

 

 

Unmatched Accuracy with T.A.P.3
The Sierra M122A features custom probe technology known as T.A.P.3 (Transparent Acquisition Probing) which has been field proven in Teledyne LeCroy's market-leading PCI Express, Fibre Channel and USB analyzer platforms. Designed to record SATA 6 Gb/s protocol with minimal impact on the signal-under-test, the Sierra M122A provides the most accurate picture of the SATA power-on reset behavior and speed negotiation timing.

 

 

Expert Analysis Software
From the link layer to the application layer, the Sierra analysis suite offers a wide range of traffic views and tools to enable engineers to easily zero-in on areas of interest. When working at the frame level, the Text View shows exchanges of frames and accompanying primitives. For viewing commands and frames in chronological order, the Spreadsheet View can filter out unwanted primitives and frames to simplify the display. The Sierra also features a hierarchical view for the application layer, logically assembling frames and primitives that are related to commands. The traditional hierarchical view groups commands, data, and status. The hierarchical display can be drilled-down to view the frame and link layers. All the analysis views can be used simultaneously synchronized and displayed within one application.

 

 

Innovative, Flexible, and Compact System Design
The Sierra's status indicators includes information on negotiated link speed, protocol error detection, link-up, out-of-band (OOB) and data frames currently on the bus. The LCD screen reports which user is currently connected to the Sierra system, the system IP address and status, which can be set from the front panel interface. Host connectivity to the Sierra includes support for both USB 3.0 and Gigabit Ethernet. The expansion port allows for future enhancements, such as providing DC power to a drive. The Sierra enclosure is easily positioned on the bench top or integrated into a 19" rack.

 

sierranet protocol analyzer

Pin-point triggering
From looking for a particular frame, to more complex events such as timing and status between events, Sierra's logical triggering algorithms give the engineer the ability to quickly define multiple logical state changes with 4 independent timers and counters. Sierra's powerful trigger capabilities include up to a 24-level state sequencer, the ability to pre-filter at each state, and the ability to assign individual triggers to each logical link. Triggering on specific header fields or commands is easy thanks to protocol-specific awareness. Spend more time engineering and less time searching for events with the deepest triggering available.

 

sierranet protocol analyzer

Automated Intelligence through software
With Sierra's transparent post-processing, searching, and hiding of unwanted traffic, analyzing the captured data has never been easier. Protocol-specific decoding, including the complete SAS and SATA command sets. Metrics are generated for every trace and allow engineers to easily determine what was captured at a glance. Performance reports can reveal command execution, errors, and other data traffic issues. Selecting from the broad range of reports provides each customer with rapid access to the information you seek.

 

Protocols SupportedSAS and SATA
Data Rates Supported12 Gb/s, 6 Gb/s, 3 Gb/s and 1.5 Gb/s
Trace Memory SizeUp to 32 GB
No of Ports SupportedM122A: Up to 2 ports
M124A: Up to 4 ports
CascadeableM122A: Up to 16 ports
M124A: Up to 32 ports
TriggeringAdvanced State Machine Trigger
FilteringPre-recording and Post-recording
Spread Spectrum ClockingYes
Performance AnalysisYes
Simulated Waveform Display of OOBYes
Data Bus InterfaceM122A: MiniSAS HD Connectors
Front Panel ConnectorM122A: MiniSAS HD Initiator, MiniSAS HD Target, External Trigger In/Out, USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet
Front Panel IndicatorsM122A: LEDs (Trigger, Error, Line, Link Speed, Frame/OOB) for each of 2 initiators and 2 Targets; Status Display Panel
Rear Panel ConnectorsM122A: AC Power, Expansion Slot
Host RequirementsWindows 8.1 / Windows 7 / Windows XP / Windows Server 2012 (x64) / Windows Server 2008 (R2)
Host InterfaceUSB3.0 or USB2.0 or  Gbe
DimensionsM122A: 39.4 x 36.3 x 4.45 cm (15.5” x 14.3” x 1.75”)
WeightM122A: 3.0 Kg (7.5 lbs)
Power RequirementsM122A: 90-254 VAC, 47-63 Hz, 200W Max
Environmental
Operating Temperature0 to 50 C (32 to 121 F)
Non-operating-20 to 80 C (-4 to 176 F)
Operating Humidity10% to 90% RH (non-condensing)
Sierra Error Injector (Jammer)
Sierra SAS Traffic Generator
SAS 6 Gbps Analysis Option
CrossSync Multi-Protocol Analysis option
Sierra External Power Expansion Card v2
SAS Verification Option
1U Zero Carrying Case