Agilent Unveils 6-Gig SATA Test

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) today announced the industrys first automated compliance test package for Serial ATA (SATA) physical layer transmitter compliance testing that includes measurement support for the new SATA 6-Gb/s interface.

Devices operating at 6 Gb/s present new measurement challenges that require new tools and procedures for proper validation and margin analysis. Having advance access to measurements enables companies developing cutting-edge solutions to address potential design issues early in the design cycle and get their products to market faster.

The Agilent N5411B test software performs a wide range of tests for general specifications, transmitted signal requirements and out-of-band specification for currently shipping SATA products. It also provides early 6-Gb/s physical layer transmitter measurements for customers designing to the requirements of the upcoming Serial ATA International Organization: SATA Revision 3.0 specification. Serial ATA is a high-speed serial bus used primarily for data communication between storage devices and hosts; it is capable of operation at data rates up to 6.0 Gb/s.

The N5411B SATA compliance test software for Infiniium oscilloscopes provides design and validation engineers with a fast and easy way to verify physical layer transmitter compliance for SATA 1.5-Gb/s, 3.0-Gb/s and 6.0-Gb/s silicon, host bus adapters, port multipliers, and high-density, solid-state and optical disk drives. The software:

provides automated compliance test support for the i (internal), m (eSATA) and x (SAS attachment) interfaces points; displays the results in a flexible report format; and provides a margin analysis that shows how closely a device passes or fails each test.

Engineers designing and developing SATA interfaces can also use the Agilent J-BERT N4903A/B high-performance serial BERT for physical layer receiver compliance testing and characterization, and the Agilent DCA-J 86100C TDR system for characterization of the transmit and receive termination impedances and return loss per the requirements of the upcoming SATA specification. Agilent provides a complete set of official SATA physical layer test solutions for SATA Revision 2.6 today and provides gold-suite test coverage at SATA-IO interoperability workshops to support the SATA-IO official logo validation program. Agilent’s test automation software N5990A, with its SATA compliance test-automation suite, offers high-level system automation and test integration across physical layer test requirement categories and provides a broader set of receiver characterization test and margin analysis capabilities.

Agilent Technologies Inc.