DSO aims to become standard for evaluating 2- to 12.5-Gbps serial data
By Dan Strassberg -- EDN, August 19, 2004
Tektronix’s TDS8200 modular (sequential equivalent-time) sampling oscilloscope and 82A04 phase-reference module allow bandwidths as great as 70 GHz. The company claims that the products incorporate the only single-ended and differential clock-recovery system that covers all current and emerging serial-data standards that transmit at bit rates of 50 Mbps to 12.6 Gbps. The company also says the products incorporate the industry's only clock-recovery system for 3- to 6-Gbps differential and single-ended signals. At these data rates, the measuring system’s jitter is less than 200 fsec rms (Picture).
Characterizing serial-data signals that contain embedded clocks has historically presented significant challenges. Standards such as XAUI (10-Gbps attachment-unit interface) at 3.125 Gbps, double-speed XAUI at 6.25 Gbps, and SATA2 (serial-advanced-technology attachment 2), require instruments that can acquire and precisely characterize these complex, ultrahigh-data-rate signals, which are now typically differential.
When measuring in the low-jitter-timebase phase-reference mode, the TDS8200 acquires data at speeds as great as 25 times those of competing instruments. Using its proprietary FrameScan acquisition mode, the TDS8200 can also quantify random and deterministic jitter. When you combine it with an 80E0x electrical-signal-acquisition module, the measurement system provides complete clock recovery and electrical-signal analysis for differential and single-ended signals.
The acquisition module permits users to specify custom bit rates to test devices, modules, and systems that run at emerging and nonstandard rates. The wide clock-recovery range and single-module support for user-specified bit-rates provides complete clock recovery for testing a variety of computer- and communications-signaling rates and standards. The TDS8200 sampling scope costs $20,490; the 82A04 reference module costs $28,990.
Tektronix Inc, 1-800-426-2200, www.tektronix.com.
