Teledyne LeCroy: CrossSync PHY Interposers and Software Options to Analyze PCIe Across Physical and Protocol Layers

Teledyne LeCroy, Inc. introduced the CrossSync PHY interposers and software options, enabling a link between an oscilloscope and a protocol analyzer to allow engineers to get a complete picture when testing the PCIe interface standard.

When testing and debugging PCIe, engineers use protocol analyzers to view protocol messages between components over a relatively long period of time. Engineers also need to use oscilloscopes to measure PCIe electrical performance at the physical layer with a high degree of resolution. They cannot, however, capture protocol messages with oscilloscopes because they run out of memory before the protocol event occurs. For this reason, engineers need to use the 2 separate instruments in entirely different set ups when testing an application using PCIe. By linking the oscilloscope with the protocol analyzer using CrossSync PHY Interposer Probes and Software Options Link, engineers can test PCIe using one system test. This enhances reliability and accuracy in testing.

“PCIe is rapidly becoming a ubiquitous interconnect technology used in applications including storage, graphics cards, network interfaces and AI accelerators,” said Kevin Prusso, VP and GM. “Engineering managers and engineers trying to integrate PCIe have told us time and again about the issues related to integrating this complex technology and their frustration from not being able to see and correlate the physical and protocol layers in one view. Our new CrossSync PHY technology does just that, enhancing reliability and performance while also improving time to market.”

“The event correlation between protocol and electrical events has been a pain point in our debug sessions,” said Srajit Singh, product validation architect, Intel Corp. “This solution is exactly what we need. We believe it will expedite our debug efforts when it comes to dealing with complex PCIe issues that lie at the boundary of electrical and functional domain.“

About CrossSync PHY
A CrossSync PHY-capable interposer probes a live PCIe link for simultaneous capture of both oscilloscope and protocol analyzer traces, providing insight into protocol-directed electrical behaviors to design and validation engineers. The CrossSync PHY software option for the company’s LabMaster and WaveMaster oscilloscopes enables the oscilloscope’s MAUI user interface to be viewed directly alongside the industry-standard firm’s CATC protocol trace. The combination of the interposer and the software option permits the oscilloscope and protocol analyzer traces to be viewed, navigated and analyzed in a time-correlated way unique to the company.

Three PCIe 4.0 M.2 interposer models that are the first to include the CrossSync PHY support have been added to the company’s PCIe test solutions product line. The 3 models (PE210UIA-1PHY, -2PHY, and -4PHY) add built-in oscilloscope probing corresponding to 1, 2 or 4 lanes of the PCIe interface, and allow for oscilloscope probing of sideband signals, reference clock and power rails.

The CrossSync PHY software option is available for the company’s LabMaster and WaveMaster oscilloscopes.