Scope maker LeCroy has introduced PCI Express Gen 1.x, 2.0 and 3.0 decode annotation for validation and debug, adding protocol awareness to its physical layer tools.
"Hardware and system engineers can simultaneously understand the physical layer and protocol behaviour of high-speed PCI Express serial data signals. The capability provides a link layer protocol decode for up to four PCI Express signals annotated on the oscilloscope physical layer waveform," said the firm. "It is the first and only oscilloscope-based decode solution for Gen 2.0 and Gen 3.0 standards."
For simultaneous symbol/primitive and protocol level understanding, LeCroy's optional 8b/10b decode annotation tool can be added.
All the standard maths, measurement, cursor, zoom, and other analysis tools available in the oscilloscope may be used concurrently.
"The annotation capability is especially helpful for the emerging PCI Express Gen 3.0 standard, where silicon physical layer [PHY] links are beginning to be validated before the standard has been finalised," said LeCroy. "In the early PHY validation stages, the physical layer signals may not exhibit the desired signal fidelity, and a significant amount of physical layer debug must often occur before a specialised protocol analyser can be used."
Within the tool, algorithms deconstruct the waveform into protocol information, and then annotate the physical layer waveform on the oscilloscope grid. Annotation condenses or expands depending on the time base/zoom ratio setting.
Various portions of the protocol are colour-coded.
"For instance, TS1 and SKIPs are colour-coded a grayish blue while Electrical Idle, Error, or Unrecognized frames are colour-coded red," said LeCroy.
Decoded information is shown in tables and touching a specific frame index in the table or searching for a specific frame type automatically creates a zoom trace showing physical layer detail along with expanded decode information.
The option is compatible with the WavePro 7 Zi, WaveMaster 8 Zi, WavePro 7000, and WaveMaster 8000 series of oscilloscopes, as well as serial data/disk drive analysers based on the same hardware: including the SDA11000, SDA13000, and SDA18000.
Bandwidth is recommended as at least the PCI Express GT/s rate, with a minimum oscilloscope sample rate of 4x the data rate.