Agilent Technologies Introduces Industry’s Most Accurate Real-Time PRBS23 Jitter Testing

New Infiniium Software Also Adds Hardware-Accelerated Differential and Common Mode Channels, Advanced De-Embedding

SANTA CLARA, Calif.- Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced enhanced functionality for its award-winning Infiniium 90000 Series high-performance digital-storage oscilloscopes and Infiniium 9000 Series mixed-signal and digital-storage oscilloscopes to include real-time PRBS23 jitter testing with the most accurate results in the industry.

Engineers working with high-speed serial data links, such as USB, SATA or PCI Express(r), use oscilloscopes to measure jitter to ensure compliance to industry standards for interoperability. Faster data rates mean smaller jitter budgets and less tolerance for measurement error from the oscilloscope. With the industry’s most accurate real-time measurement capability and deepest memory, the Agilent Infiniium 90000 Series oscilloscopes are uniquely able to support longer test-pattern lengths. Engineers can have greater confidence in their designs by ensuring functionality across a wider range of undesirable operating conditions.

“It can sound counterintuitive to claim more measurement accuracy than you get with other real-time oscilloscopes with higher bandwidths,” said Scott Sampl, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s oscilloscope organization. “However, we leverage the company’s strength in RF design and invest extensively in technology that reduces the contribution of oscilloscope noise to the measurement. The last thing we want is our customers working harder to optimize their designs because we’re consuming their jitter budget.”

Included in the Infiniium 2.01 software release, hardware-accelerated differential and common mode channels boost speeds up to 20 times faster than other software implementations. Limited math functions traditionally used to accomplish differential and common mode math are now freed for other use. Full InfiniiScan triggering, an industry exclusive, is available on these hardware-accelerated channels.

Other enhanced functionality in the software release includes:

* Support for InfiniiSim waveform translation toolset software (N5465A and N5466A) for hardware-accelerated de-embedding and embedding to remove signal effects of channels, probing and fixtures.
* Emulation of a continuous time linear equalizer (CTLE) with the purchase of Infiniium’s serial data equalization package (N5461A). The package comes complete with full DFE, FFE, and CTLE emulation techniques.
* Addition of crossing point voltage measurement enabling fast characterization of DDR technologies.