SerialTek, a leading provider of protocol test and analysis products for the data center and storage industries, including solutions for PCI Express, NVM Express, and Compute Express Link (CXL), announced today that a modular, calibration-free interposer that supports OCP 3.0 NIC and EDSFF form factors is now available. The interposer works with PCIe 5.0 and is made to support PCIe 6.0 PAM4 modulation at 64 GT/s and SerialTek’s future PCIe 6.0 protocol analyzers. This lets customers invest in solutions that will work in the future.
Importantly, the new interposer has the industry’s first built-in power analysis function. This is made possible by a small module from Quarch Technology Ltd, a leading provider of automated test solutions for the data storage, networking, and telecom industries. The power analysis module lets you measure voltage, current, and power with very high accuracy, so you don’t need to carry around bulky current probes/oscilloscopes or DC power analyzers.
PCI Express interposers are complex devices that are made to be put between PCI Express system components that can work with a variety of connectivity standards and to connect that system to a PCI Express protocol analyzer. They do this without causing any damage to the system. SerialTek interposers use SI-FiTM, a proprietary probing technology that eliminates the need for hours-long calibration sequences, keeps the original signal quality of the link, and allows real-world PCIe link training debug.
“SerialTek has been a leader in the storage and networking markets for a long time, so we know that our customers who are building and deploying CXL devices based on OCP and EDSFF standards have a lot of analysis needs,” said Paul Mutschler, the CEO of SerialTek. “This multi-form factor interposer with built-in power analysis is a flexible and powerful solution for PCIe 5.0 and CXL analysis tasks today, and it also has support for PCIe 6.0 built in for tomorrow.” Simply put, we are delivering performance and cost-effectiveness on multiple fronts with one tool, different form factors, and different generations of PCIe.
Protocol Analysis needs to be accompanied by integrated power analysis and monitoring. Integration of the Quarch power analysis and monitoring module makes it possible to keep track of bus and device electricals without using an extra fixture, which can hurt signal integrity and link-up performance. This module has been tested in the field and is calibrated to 100 A.
It has an impressive sampling rate of 4 sec and gives very accurate results. When voltage, current, and power measurements are added to the SerialTek protocol trace, along with the capture of sideband assertions, users get full, clear, and crucial visibility into the relationship between power consumption and data throughput, as well as excellent tracking of the always-important power management link states.
Andy Norrie, the director of Quarch Technology Operations, said, “Quarch power products have become the industry standard for testing storage devices, and our capabilities helped shape the OCP power testing specifications.” “Seeing our power analysis technology added to SerialTek’s Kodiak platform is very exciting, and the engineers who use it will get a lot out of it.”
Engineers at CXL now have better and more testing options
SerialTek’s innovative Kodiak Protocol Analysis System works with CXL, which is an industry-standard cache-coherent interconnect for processors, memory expansion, and accelerators. CXL makes it easier and faster for memory to be accessed by applications that use a lot of data, such as artificial intelligence. The new OCP/EDSFF interposer works with new and upcoming CPU platforms from Intel and AMD that support CXL, as well as future ARM CPUs.
Configurations and Availability
The new SerialTek interposer supports lane widths of x16 for OCP 3.0 NIC and x8 for EDSFF. It is available from SerialTek and its authorized distributors. You can buy these interposers in the following ways (Quarch’s QTL2312 Power Analysis Module is needed):
PCIe x16 OCP 3.0 NIC/EDSFF Interposer with Integrated Quarch Power Analysis (PEI-G6-16-OCPQ)PCIe x8 EDSFF E3 Interposer with Integrated Quarch Power Analysis (PEI-G6-08-EDSQ)Go to www.serialtek.com or email sales@serialtek.com for more information.
