T&MZONE Products for the week of August 1, 2005
Agilent Technologies Says . . .
Agilent Technologies Adds S-Parameter Measurement
Capability on DCA-J for Industry-First Complete System Verification Solution
New Capability Speeds Development of Next-Generation Devices
for High-Speed Designers and Manufacturers
Agilent Technologies Inc. introduced significant industry-first, built-in impedance and S-parameter software for its 86100C Infiniium digital communication analyzer (DCA-J), the industry's leading wide-bandwidth oscilloscope with jitter analysis and now also the most complete high-accuracy signal-integrity tool. The Agilent 86100C-202 enhanced impedance and S-parameter software enables today's high-speed digital designers to make both single-ended and differential S-parameter measurements on their devices according to the various high-speed serial communication standards.
The software also adds
corrected impedance profile, enabling designers and manufacturers to obtain
accurate impedance measurements of discontinuities in their devices under
test. It gives them the ability to measure the minimum, maximum and average
of displayed impedance, leading to quicker and more accurate characterization
of circuit discontinuities, and it provides important information on how
to improve their designs and speed time to market.
The increasing transfer of voice, data and video over networks and users' demands for higher productivity have dramatically boosted the need for higher-speed signals. These signals place a greater burden on the physical channel and have stimulated the need for differential channels in serial data transfers. Industry standards such as PCI Express, Serial ATA, Universal Serial BUS (USB) and IPC increasingly call for the use of S-parameter and impedance measurements to ensure system verification and interoperability. For R&D and manufacturing test engineers working on high-speed electrical communications, Agilent's enhanced impedance and S-parameter software release provides cost-effective, comprehensive signal integrity measurements without requiring hardware upgrades for the Agilent 86100C Infiniium DCA-J.
"The Agilent 86100C DCA-J, now with on-board S-parameter and impedance analysis, provides the most complete high-accuracy signal-integrity tool for high-speed designers," said Siegfried Gross, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Digital Verification Solutions Division. "For the first time ever, engineers can analyze and measure their complete communication system from the transmitter, with traditional oscilloscope and jitter measurements, to the channel, with the new S-parameter and impedance software, and to the receiver, with the on-board equalizer capability."
Benefits of the Agilent 86100C-202 software include:
analogZONE Says...
When asked by the T&MZONE "Does this software provide capabilities not possible using other products on the market?" Agilent's Marketing Manager Kurt Hellinga answered this way: "Yes, you can make such measurements with many available network and vector analyzers. But they require the hooking up and unhooking of different instruments, which takes time. With Agilent's 86100C-202 software, all of this is eliminated and a lot of time is saved." The T&MZONE agrees.
Of course, you have to be a user of Agilent's equipment like the DCA-J analyzer for this to be valid.
The 86100C-202 enhanced impedance and S-parameter software will be available August 2005 at a list price of $6000 for October shipment.