October 21, 2009 -- Agilent Technologies Inc. announced the release of test procedures for physical and protocol-layer device testing according to the Serial ATA International Organization's (SATA-IO) Serial ATA (SATA) Revision 3.0 standard.
The new test procedures cover transmitter, receiver, return loss and protocol specifications. The test procedures are also in line with Unified Test Document (UTD) Revision 1.4, which describes the overview testing requirement for devices and products to achieve interoperability. The procedures, also known as methods of implementation, are available on the SATA-IO Web page. Complete methods of implementation for the SATA Gen1 and Gen2 standards are also available.
SATA, a popular internal storage interconnect for PCs, connects the host system to peripherals such as hard drives, solid-state drives, optical drives and removable magnetic media devices. The SATA Revision 3.0 standard defines a maximum transfer speed of 6.0 Gb/s, which is double the speed of previous-generation technology. Faster transfer speeds enable higher-performance storage for applications such as emerging solid-state drives and enterprise business storage. This new specification will enable users to move large quantities of data at faster rates, which is increasingly critical for today's high-resolution photos, videos, music and multimedia files.
Devices operating at 6 Gb/s present new measurement challenges that require new tools and procedures for proper validation and margin analysis. Advance access to measurements enables engineers developing cutting-edge solutions to address potential design issues early in the design cycle and get their products to market faster.
Agilent provides capabilities for physical-layer testing of high-speed serial data technologies. The company contends that its Infiniium 90000 Series oscilloscope offers the industry's lowest noise floor, deepest memory and flattest response. Using the 90000 Series oscilloscope and Agilent's automated N5411B SATA compliance test software, engineers may maximize their design margins and gain greater insights into system performance.
Engineers can use the Agilent J-BERT N4903A/B high-performance serial BERT for physical-layer receiver compliance testing and characterization. They also can use the Agilent DCA-J 86100C TDR system to characterize transmit and receive termination impedances and return loss per the requirements of the upcoming SATA specification. The Agilent N5990A test automation software, 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 tests and margin analysis capabilities.
Agilent also recently expanded its SATA solution portfolio with the U5031A/U5032A SerialTek BusExpert SATA protocol analyzer, which covers link speeds from 1.5 Gb/s to 6 Gb/s for protocol testing.
On the Web:
www.agilent.com
www.serialata.org
