LeCroy is claiming a number of firsts as it introduces its LabMaster 9 Zi-A modular oscilloscope systems: most bandwidth, highest channel count, and highest sample rate at up to 45GHz, 20 channels and 120Gsample/s, plus 768Mpoint/channel analysis memory.
"The modular oscilloscope architecture signals the company's direction at the highest end of its oscilloscope product line," said LeCroy. "Future oscilloscopes over 20GHz bandwidth will be developed and deployed in the 9 Zi-A family."
"It enables the leading-edge technologies such as 28-32Gbit/s SERDES, 40/100Gbit Ethernet, PCIe Gen3 and optical coherent modulation communications," claimed the firm. "These technologies are all necessary to meet the ever-growing volume of network traffic driven by cloud computing, mobile computers, and streaming video."
The system architecture separates the signal acquisition function from the display, control and processing functions.
There are master and slave acquisition modules , each available in bandwidths of 13, 16, 20, 30, or 45GHz.
Maximum memory in the acquisition module is 256, 512 768Mpoint/channel at 20, 30 and 45GHz respectively.
Acquisition is through the same SiGe chips used in the existing WaveMaster 8 Zi-A.
"Nearly all software and hardware options available for the 8 Zi-A are also available for 9 Zi-A," said the firm.
Up to four slaves can be attached to one master, for a total of 20 channels at 20GHz, 10 channels at 30GHz, and 5 channels at 45GHz.
"There are upgrade paths in both bandwidth and channel count. Start with a minimum configuration and add channels over time by adding additional acquisition modules, upgrading bandwidth on existing modules, or mixing and matching bandwidths in one system," said the firm.
Pricing of the slave modules "make it cost-effective to purchase more oscilloscope channels instead of expensive probes", clamed the firm. Furthermore, by cabling signals into the scope instead of using a differential probe or amplifier, noise is decreased by 3dB or more."
45 and 30GHz acquisition modules contain all of the bandwidth, sample rate and memory capability of the lower bandwidth modules.
"This provides flexibility in performing jitter analysis on fewer signals at the very highest bandwidths, or performing serial data lane skew characterization on more lanes at lower bandwidths," said LeCroy.
Not normally seen outside servers, the main processor is an Intel Xeon X5660 which has six cores per processor and two processors per CPU, all clocked at 2.8GHz, with 24Gbyte of RAM - and a 192Gbyte option.
The built-in display is 15.3in., and optional or user-supplied displays up to 2,560x1,600 can be attached.
System synchronisation for up to 20 channels comes from a 10GHz clock generated in the master module and distributed to up to four slaves.
Claimed jitter is 275fs(subrms) jitter between all channels.
"Slaves are automatically identified to the master, and software automatically corrects for any static acquisition skew between all acquisition modules. The result is up to twenty oscilloscope channels all operating as a single oscilloscope package," said the firm.
For 28Gbit/s SERDES development, the scope can provide two channels at 45GHz for differential signal input test capability, then four channels at 30GHz or eight channels at 20GHz for testing and debugging of multiple lanes.
Four channels at 30GHz can also be used for 28GBaud (112Gbit/s) DP-QPSK coherent modulation systems.
"For greater than 28GBaud, it can be configured in up to a four channel at 45GHz system to allow research and development at the highest possible symbol rates," the firm said. "In fact, LeCroy 45GHz systems have already been utilized for 80GBaud DP-QPSK research."
The firm sees 20 channel at 20 GHz, and 10 channels at 30 GHz configurations as analysers for crosstalk and lane skew analysis on fast 'serial' data.
"As serial data rates have increased, serial data has become parallel, with multiple lanes utilized to achieve higher effective data transfer rates," it said: "40/100Gbit Ethernet with up to 10 lanes at 10Gbit/s each, 100Gbit Ethernet with up to 4 lanes at 28Gbit/s each, and PCI Express with up to 16 lanes at 8Gbit/s each, all using differential signaling, are obvious examples."