Keysight Technologies Transmitter and Receiver Testing Solution for PCIe Gen5 Standard

Keysight Technologies, Inc. announced a transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) testing solution providing the speed and margins needed to meet the PCIe 5.0 Technology (PCIe Gen5) standard.

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With many 5G wireless devices reported to launch in 2019, the computer/server industry is working to upgrade and enhance network speed with advanced technologies such as 400GbE. PCIe 5.0 technology is required for computer servers to support the bandwidth of 400Gb networks, as it is the only significant input/output (I/O) interconnect that has the throughput necessary to support the 400Gb interface.

Designing ICs and systems utilizing this version of the PCIe standard presents engineering challenges for developers. The company’s PCIe 5.0 transmitter and receiver solution enables engineers with the tools necessary to achieve the speed and margins required to meet the standard, with upgradability for future investment protection.

“Data centers need to be upgraded to the next 400Gb speed rates for operators to offer new services, while preserving quality, meeting the ever-increasing data and storage demands, and minimizing costs,” said Dr. Joachim Peerlings, VP and GM, networks and data centers, Keysight. “Physical layer transmitter and receiver test tools capable of testing at 32GT/s enable designers to optimize their transmitter, receiver, and channel designs for maximum performance and reliability at the required increased data transfer rate.“

The firm’s PCIe 5.0 receiver test solution enables the design and validation of circuits capable of tolerating attenuated signals at 32GT/s. PCIe 5.0 utilizes agressive equalization techniques helping the receiver restore the quality of the transmitted signal, allowing for error-free recovery of the digital information from the PCIe Tx signal. Due to these high data transfer rates, PCIe 5.0 receivers must accept a heavily degraded signal resulting from the channel’s high-frequency loss characteristics, resulting in unacceptable bit error ratios (BERs). To address this, the company has developed the M8040A performance 64Gbaud BERT, enabling physical layer characterization and compliance testing, to characterize receiver performance margins on the physical layer.

Infiniium UXR-Series oscilloscope

The increase in digital transmission speed and throughput introduce signal integrity challenges such as issues with connector crosstalk and receiver jitter sensitivity, driving the need for an accurate oscilloscope and receiver test solution. The company’s Infiniium UXR-Series oscilloscope provides bandwidth and noise floor performance to maximize margins and meet the challenges presented by the PCIe 5.0 standard, with upgradeability to 110GHz.

About Keysight Technologies
It. is a technology company that helps enterprises, service providers, and governments accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world. The firm’s solutions optimize networks and bring electronic products to market faster and at a lower cost with offerings from design simulation, to prototype validation, to manufacturing test, to optimization in networks and cloud environments. Customers span the worldwide communications ecosystem, aerospace and defense, automotive, energy, semiconductor, and general electronics end markets. The company generated revenues of $3.9 billlion in fiscal year 2018.