News and New Products

Pulse/function/noise/arbitrary-waveform generator combines protocol- and physical-layer testing

By Dan Strassberg, Contributing Technical Editor -- EDN, 6/4/2009

The need is intensifying to investigate and identify performance impairments resulting from imperfections in the physical layers of serial buses such as Flexray, an advanced data-transmission technology for communication among the many intelligent subsystems in modern motor vehicles. As cars and trucks that incorporate such subsystems reach the roads in growing numbers, the lives of more and more people will depend on the reliable performance of these systems. Now, Agilent Technologies has found a way to merge physical-layer and protocol testing of such buses and has incorporated the capability in a $3990 pattern-generator option, which the company is offering for its 81150A 1-μHz to 120-MHz pulse/function/pseudorandom-noise/arbitrary-waveform generator, whose US base prices begin at $9000.

With the option, the instrument allows pass-through of patterns for combined physical-layer and protocol testing at rates as high as 10 Mbps and can produce arbitrary bit-shaped patterns that emulate overshoot, asymmetric delay, and duty-cycle distortion at rates to 120 Mbps. Agilent implemented the option in software, and activating the upgrade also unlocks built-in 16-bit-wide pattern memory. Owners of some older units must download and install a free software revision before they can activate the upgrade.