Agilent intros industry’s first GDDR5 compliance test tools for oscilloscopes

SANTA CLARA, USA: Agilent Technologies Inc. has introduced the industry’s first graphics double data rate 5 (GDDR5) compliance test application packages and GDDR5 ball-grid array (BGA) probes for oscilloscopes.

The new tools help engineers accelerate the turn-on and debug of GDDR5-based systems. The tools also give them an efficient way to ensure their GDDR5 device and board designs will interoperate with other GDDR5 devices.

The Agilent U7245A GDDR5 test application, which runs on Agilent Infiniium 90000 and 90000 X-Series oscilloscopes, provides GDDR5 physical-layer compliance measurements. Compliance tests are based on the Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) JESD212 GDDR5 SGRAM specification. Signal access is provided by Agilent’s GDDR5 BGA probes.

GDDR5 technology’s higher data rates -- up to five times faster than GDDR3 and four times faster than GDDR4 -- enables more bandwidth availability over a narrower memory interface for superior performance designs for applications requiring high bandwidth. GDDR5 SGRAM is used in high-performance display cards and embedded designs such as gaming consoles and computer notebooks.

“Our active involvement in developing the JEDEC standard allows us to deliver a GDDR5 compliance and characterization tool with test methodology that is widely accepted in the industry,” said Jay Alexander, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s oscilloscopes business.

“By integrating the InfiniiScan trigger tool for read and write separation, and the InfiniiSim de-embed tool for removing probing effects, we help engineers turn on and debug their GDDR5-based systems faster and make it easier for them to make data-valid window measurements.”

“Agilent’s GDDR5 compliance test application can help AMD and its customers create robust systems by helping to ensure that physical-layer measurements can be taken quickly with consistent, accurate results,” said Joe Macri, corporate vice president and client CTO, AMD. “The high-speed nature of GDDR5 and the GDDR5 BGA probe, combined with the Agilent Infiniium 90000 X-Series oscilloscopes, is an ideal marriage for test engineers.”

The Agilent GDDR5 compliance test application provides automated physical layer testing capability for all clock, electrical and timing tests, with 100 percent test coverage as specified in the JESD212 specification.

The U7245A GDDR5 application automatically configures the oscilloscope for each test and generates an HTML report at the end of the test that is viewable with any Web browser. The report compares the results with the specification test limit and indicates how closely the device passes or fails each test.

Engineers can easily debug data signal integrity issues using the U7245A software in conjunction with the new InfiniiScan multichannel and multizone triggering scope features. The software uses these capabilities to set up the scope to separate the read and write data. Using this method is more convenient than using multiple digital channels for command bus triggering to separate read and write commands. This unique InfiniiScan feature is available only with Infiniium 9000, 90000 and 90000 X-Series oscilloscopes.

The Agilent 90000 X-Series oscilloscopes, the world’s fastest real-time oscilloscopes, were introduced in April 2010 with volume customer shipments beginning this month. The 90000 X-Series scopes are engineered for 32 GHz true-analog bandwidth that delivers the industry’s highest real-time scope measurement accuracy, the industry’s only 30-GHz oscilloscope probing system, and the industry’s first application-specific measurement software.

To complete the GDDR5 solutions, Agilent offers GDDR5 BGA probing solutions to provide access to GDDR5 signals for physical-layer characterization and compliance tests. The U7245A GDDR5 compliance test integrates InfiniiSim tools that allow engineers to de-embed or remove probing effects and improve measurement accuracy.