Tektronix claims industry first with PCI Express 6.0 test
Customers can transition to PCIe 6.0 PAM4 signalling, just weeks after the PCI-SIG (Special Interest Group) released PCI Express (PCIe) 6.0 Base specifications and validation requirements, said Tektronix at the release of the PCIe 6.0 Base transmitter test for oscilloscopes.
PCIe 6.0 is a scalable standard for data-intensive markets such as data centre, artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) and high performance computing (HPC). It transitions to PAM4 signalling and new error correcting techniques. The Tektronix test therefore includes PCIe 6.0 measurement-specific software, enhanced PAM4 DSP capabilities and noise compensation on the oscilloscope. The Tektronix test is further enhanced by the analysis tools for SNDR and uncorrelated jitter measurements which are both mandated requirements for the PCIe 6.0 standard.
The PCIe 6.0 standard transmitter validation for high performance and data-intensive markets is available worldwide for use with DPO70000SX ATI Performance Oscilloscopes.
Tektronix’s customer, silicon IP provider, Alphawave collaborated with Tektronix for early validation of PCIe 6.0 physical layer designs. “Tektronix was deeply involved in defining the PCIe 64 GT/s measurement methodologies, which enabled our engineers to increase their confidence in meeting this challenging new standard prior to release,” said Clint Walker, vice president of marketing at Alphawave.
Tektronix’s Swapnil Mane, marketing director of wired solutions, agreed: “Our PCIe 6.0 standard test and debug solution easily integrates into the engineers’ workflow for test and debug. With the complexity of PAM4 signalling, our analysis tools make it easier to test their design and ensure it meets the new 6.0 standard requirement with a high degree of confidence”.
The test includes PCIe 6.0 (64 GT/s) standard automated base transmitter running on Tektronix DPO70000SX real time oscilloscopes with 50GHz and above bandwidth. It has enhanced PAM4 DSP capabilities with the Tektronix PAMJET application and support for measurements developed for the PCI Express 6.0 standard including SNDR, RLM, uncorrelated jitter, and pulse width jitter. In addition, instrumentation noise compensation techniques are tailored to individual measurements to achieve the most accurate results, said Tektronix.
