6Gb SAS/SATA Protocol Verification System From LeCroy

LeCroy Corporation, supplier of oscilloscopes and serial data test solutions, announced its Sierra M6-4 verification system, the most complete protocol design and test solution for Serial Attached SCSI and Serial ATA. The new Sierra family sets unprecedented standards for performance while incorporating a complete range of features for both SAS (SAS2) and SATA (SATA6G) in a single, economical system.

Leveraging LeCroy’s extensive expertise in high-speed serial data analysis, Sierra provides the most accurate capture, display, and analysis of both SAS and SATA data traffic at data rates up to 6 Gb/s. The Sierra family features a native PHY implementation for the industry’s best lock-time and decoding of traffic. The Sierra M6-4 also features the capability for protocol analysis, traffic generation, host and device emulation, and error injection, all within one system.

"The Sierra M6-4 is the obvious choice for SAS and SATA developers, especially for the newest specifications," said Matthew Hallberg, Storage Product Manager, LeCroy Protocol Solutions Group. "Not only does it simplify reading and decoding complex SAS/SATA traffic with a logical hierarchical view, it adds helpful design tools such as host/device emulation and Infusion error injector that can take development and debugging to the next level."

Sierra M6-4’s analysis and design suites are developed specifically for use with the SAS and SATA protocols, and provide extensive protocol decoding, expert analysis, and complete flexibility when decoding and displaying the captured traffic. This extensive protocol support, combined with the different traffic views, advanced triggering, data filtering, traffic generation, emulation, and error injection capability, allows engineers to rapidly become familiar with SAS- and SATA-specific design challenges, and quickly understand new issues as soon as they encounter them.

"LeCroy’s SATA analysis tools have been extremely helpful in the development and validation of Synopsys’ DesignWare SATA IP," said Fred Meyer, R&D Manager at Synopsys. "The software is powerful and easy to use, enabling our engineers to confirm compliance to the SATA specification well before entering the SATA-IO Building Block Interoperability Testing process."

The Sierra M6-4 platform is designed for convenience, portability, and functionality. It features MiniSAS connectors for cable connection between host and/or device under test. It also features USB High-Speed or 10/100/1000baseT Ethernet for connection to host PC, status LEDs and LCD for link and system status, and an expansion port for future enhancements, such as providing power to a drive. The Sierra M6-4 supports a capture buffer of either 4 GB or 8 GB, can be licensed to support SAS and/or SATA, and users can configure specific features or add features later to match their requirements and budget.

LeCroy’s Sierra M6-4 is currently shipping to key accounts.