Agilent Technologies Offers Most Accurate Transceiver Characterization Solution for 16x Fibre Channel

J-BERT Provides Complete Jitter Tolerance Characterization for Multi-Gigabit/s Digital Serial Interfaces up to 14.2 Gb/s

SANTA CLARA, Calif..- Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced the expansion of its J-BERT N4903B high-performance serial BERT for 16x Fibre Channel transceiver testing. Design and test engineers in communications, storage and computing, and consumer industries can now accurately characterize and test interoperability of next-generation serial interfaces operating between 150 Mb/s and 14.2 Gb/s. Agilent will demonstrate the J-BERT and the new 14G option at ECOC 2009, Sept. 21-23, in Vienna, Austria, Booth No. 666.

Fibre Channel is a popular serial storage interface, supporting line rates from 1.0625 Gb/s up to 8.5 Gb/s. The Fibre Channel x16 (16x FC) interface specification PI-5 is currently being defined by the T11.2 working group and will support a line rate of 14.025 Gbaud. This will cause additional test challenges for design teams when characterizing this new interface. Agilent’s J-BERT N4903B 14.2 G option eases this challenge by characterizing these 16x FC transceiver modules and subcomponents, such as serializer / deserializer (SERDES), laser drivers, or receiving optical sub-assemblies (ROSAs) used in future server and storage farms, hubs and switch fabrics. Receiver jitter tolerance and margins can be characterized using the J-BERT pattern generator with its variable data rates up to 14.2 Gb/s and calibrated random and sinusoidal jitter injection. Pseudo random pattern sequences (PRBS) or user-defined patterns can be set up to emulate worst-case pattern conditions. Automated jitter tolerance and other error analysis can be performed with the J-BERT analyzer when clocked with a half-rate clock from the device, J-BERT or other test equipment.

When used with the Agilent 86100C Infiniium DCA-J oscilloscope, the J-BERT 14.2 G option provides the most accurate characterization, enabling transmitter quality and receiver robustness.

“We are very proud to expand the industry’s leading jitter tolerance test solution to the next speed class,” said J�rgen Beck, general manager of Agilent’s Digital Photonic Test product line. “By adopting J-BERT to the latest test requirements for the next-generation storage interfaces, we reconfirm our commitment to enable R&D and validation teams to release the next generation of robust high-speed digital interfaces for the storage, computer and communication industries.”

Benefits of the Agilent J-BERT N4903B High-Performance Serial BERT include:

* pattern generator with variable data rates up to 14.2 Gb/s;
* most accurate receiver tolerance testing with calibrated, compliant and integrated jitter injection for 16x FC;
* accurate transmitter characterization through injection of clean data streams with fastest transition times and lowest intrinsic jitter;
* automated jitter tolerance testing and error analysis using J-BERT’s half-rate sampling; and
* upgrade path from Agilent’s J-BERT N4903A/B.

Additional information about Agilent’s J-BERT N4903B is available at www.agilent.com/find/jbert. High-resolution images are available at www.agilent.com/find/jbert_images.

U.S. Pricing and Availability

The Agilent J-BERT N4903B option D14 will be available for ordering starting in October 2009. Pricing for the Agilent J-BERT N4903B high-performance serial BERT starts at $196,000 for the 14.2 Gb/s version.