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Figure 1: A key element in PCIe 4.0 compliance test is a high-bandwidth, real-time oscilloscope (shown is the Teledyne LeCroy LabMaster 10Zi-A) |
The element common to all of the tests in the PCIe 4.0 test specification is a high-bandwidth, real-time oscilloscope. The required bandwidth for Card ElectroMechanical (CEM) specification testing is stipulated by PCI-SIG in the test specification itself. For PCIe 3.0, the stipulated oscilloscope bandwidth is 13 GHz, and that rises to 25 GHz for PCIe 4.0.
We recommend our LabMaster 10Zi-A, which is nominally a four-channel instrument with real-time bandwidth of 25 GHz and sampling rate of 80 GS/s. The LabMaster 10Zi-A provides an upgrade path to bandwidths of 36, 65, and 100 GHz, future-proofing any subsequent PCIe 5.0 development needs.
Whether it's the LabMaster 10Zi-A or another oscilloscope that will be the centerpiece of your PCIe 4.0 testbench, it needs to have a rather robust feature set if it's to truly satisfy the test requirements. These features include:
- Integrated eye-diagram and jitter analysis tools
- Channel embedding and test-fixture de-embedding
- PCIe decoding with waveform annotation and tabular analysis
- Features for higher-level protocol decoding
- Multicore CPU for parallel processing capabilities
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Figure 2: Anritsu's MP1900A BERT is fully equipped for PCIe 4.0 (and 5.0) receiver tests |
PCIe 4.0 receiver tests require a similarly well-equipped bit error-rate tester (BERT). One such instrument is Anritsu's MP1900A signal-quality analyzer, a multi-channel BERT with support for all earlier PCIe generations (Figure 2). Like the LabMaster 10Zi-A, the MP1900A also provides enough horsepower for the upcoming PCIe 5.0 test specification.
The MP1900A supports bit rates from 2.4 Gb/s to 32.1 Gb/s across up to 16 channels while also offering the requisite facilities for link training and equalization as well as link-training and status state machine (LTSSM) analysis. It provides all equipment necessary for PCIe testing: synthesizer, jitter generator, noise generator, pulse pattern generator, and error detection. Thus, no other external test equipment is required.
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Figure 3: PCIe 4.0 testing requires powerful test-automation software (shown is Teledyne LeCroy's QualiPHY PCIe4-Tx-Rx) |
Test fixtures are also central to most, if not all, protocol compliance testing. When it comes to PCIe, test fixtures are available only from PCI-SIG itself. Note that for PCIe 4.0 testing, there are new fixtures, and you won't be able to press any existing PCIe 3.0 fixtures into service.
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Figure 4: This table shows how the test system's elements map to the PCIe 4.0 test specification |
Figure 4 wraps things up with a table showing how the capabilities of the LabMaster 10Zi-A oscilloscope and MP1900A bit error-rate tester map to the equipment requirements of the PCIe 4.0 test specification.
Our next installment will provide a detailed look at the transmitter electrical tests.
Earlier posts in this series:
Introduction to PCIe 4.0 Electrical Compliance Test
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