Embed logic-analysis probes in your Xilinx FPGA
By Dan Strassberg -- EDN, March 4, 2004
Of all of the logic-analysis products that Agilent announced on March 1, the B4655A FPGA dynamic probe logic-analysis application, which carries an introductory price of $995 through the rest of 2004, appears to hold the greatest promise of revolutionizing the way you work. The product allows you to embed logic-analysis probes within designs that you implement in Xilinx FPGAs. You can dynamically switch each probe among as many as 64 internal probe points, enabling an FPGA design that allocates, say, five pins to probing to reveal the activity at 320 internal nodes.
Moreover, automatic mapping of signal names from your design to the probe points greatly speeds logic-analyzer setup and eliminates confusion that can attend the use of tools that assign multiple names to the same signals or nodes. In addition, you can view the probe points in either state- or timing-analysis modes. Furthermore, a two-times data-compression option maximizes the number of pins that you can use for the design.
Agilent’s announcement also included a new family of three- and six-slot modular logic analyzers priced from $12,000 to $15,000. You can connect members of the 16900 series to a 1-Gbps LAN and upload captured information to a separate host computer for rapid analysis while you acquire additional data (Picture).
Each of Agilent’s three new logic-analyzer acquisition modules provides 4-GHz timing (250-psec sampling) simultaneously with state measurements, eliminating the need to double-probe. The 68-channel 16950A (from $18,500) offers 600-MHz state speed; the 102-channel 16910A (from $12,000) and 68-channel 16911A (from $9000) offer state speeds to 450 MHz.
These 16900 series logic-analyzer modules allow independent installation of acquisition-memory-depth and state-speed upgrades, which allow development teams to purchase just what they need and upgrade either memory depth or state speed as their needs evolve.
Agilent also announced several logic-analyzer probing products. The 17-channel, single-ended, connectorless, E5396A and E5398A soft-touch probes are compatible with all Agilent logic analyzers that use 40- and 90-pin connectors, respectively. Both probes use spring-pin technology, which requires no special cleaning or probe-pad surface finishes to make a reliable connection. The price of each unit is $1900.
Agilent Technologies, 1-800-452-4844, www.agilent.com/go/news.
