New LeCroy Disk Drive Analyzers

LeCroy Corporation‘s new line of WaveMaster digital oscilloscopes, Serial Data Analyzers, and Disk Drive Analyzers – the 8 Zi Series – provides up to 30 GHz of bandwidth, 80 GS/s of sample rate, 512 Megapoints of analysis, and greater than 15 GHz edge triggering. With exceptional instrument responsiveness, 10-100 times faster analysis processing time, a large 15.3", 16:9 high-definition touch screen display (50% larger than 12.4" displays), the precision of Eye Doctor signal integrity tools, and both 50 Ω / 1 MΩ input capability, the WaveMaster 8 Zi Series is the most versatile oscilloscope platform available. Features previously announced with the Zi platform, such as TriggerScan rare event capture, removable front panel, integrated second display, and fast LSIB external data transfer (up to 250 Mpts/s-25 to 50 times faster than any other method) are also available. The combination of performance, speed, precision, and capability provides engineers with deeper insight, faster debug, and more efficient validation.

LeCroy has designed the 8 Zi Series as a single hardware platform, supporting all eight models spanning from 4 to 30 GHz of bandwidth. This means engineers can leverage their investment and stay current with emerging high speed technologies and serial data standards by purchasing only the bandwidth needed for current designs, and upgrading to additional bandwidth as needs change. This is an especially attractive feature in lean economic times, particularly with upgrades available to 30 GHz of bandwidth, as companies seek to minimize capital investments.

The standard sample rate is 80 GS/s for 20 to 30 GHz bandwidths (40 GS/s on all 4 channels at reduced bandwidth). For 4-16 GHz bandwidths, the standard sample rate is 40 GS/s on all four channels with an option to increase the sampling rate to 80 GS/s on two channels. All memory is available at full record lengths for analysis processing, 10 Mpts/ch is provided, with memory options up to 256 Mpts/ch available. In 80 GS/s mode, memory can be interleaved to 512 Mpts/ch.

For serial data applications, eight new Serial Data Analyzer (SDA) models provide the same high bandwidth range (from 4 to 30 GHz), sample rate, and analysis memory capability (with 20 Mpts/ch standard), and are combined with LeCroy’s powerful SDA II Serial Data Analysis tools and standard 3.125 Gb/s serial trigger to provide unmatched capability for implementing and debugging emerging, high speed serial data standards, such as PCIe 3.0 and USB 3.0.

Superior Serial Data Analysis
SDA 8 Zi Serial Data Analyzers are based on the WaveMaster 8 Zi Series oscilloscope and are equipped with double the standard memory to capture more unit intervals in the eye diagram. They include an enhanced high-speed serial pattern trigger that operates on up to 80 bit patterns and at speeds up to 3.125 Gb/s.

The expansive SDA II toolset includes superior jitter breakdown methodologies and more precise jitter breakdown tools to increase confidence in measurements, and offer more complete insight, faster than competitive tools. Eye diagram analysis can be accomplished 100 times faster than competitive tools ? nearly 1 million unit intervals of PCI Express can be captured, analyzed, and displayed in 3 seconds. Additional tools, such as IsoBER (which identifies lines of constant bit error rate) and Mask Violation Locator make it easy to understand complex problems. The Cable De-Embedding feature allows cable distortion effects to be removed to achieve more accurate timing and amplitude measurements on high-speed eye diagrams. Complete, simultaneous views of eye diagrams, time interval error, bathtub curves, jitter histograms, and other jitter breakdown analysis is standard in the new SDA 8 Zi analyzers.

LeCroy’s advanced SDA II tools simplify the path to compliance testing by decreasing debug time and increasing the understanding of jitter through superior and more precise analysis of Rj+Dj breakdown. At the compliance stage, automated QualiPHY packages are available for a variety of established standards, such as PCIe, SAS, SATA, HDMI, DisplayPort, and XAUI.

Eye Doctor Adds Precision
to Signal Integrity Measurements
Oscilloscopes with bandwidths up to 30 GHz are needed to test the fastest emerging technologies in the most difficult measurement environments. Challenges that were not very pronounced at rise times of 50 ps, or bit rates of 2.5 Gb/s and slower, become more problematic as rise times approach or become less than 25 ps, and bit rates exceed 5 Gb/s. At these speeds, engineers face signal integrity problems that were formerly limited to the microwave frequency domain, such as imperfect test fixtures and test circuit connections. In addition, engineers implementing the next generation of high speed serial data standards are faced with the challenge of faster and more complex signals, while at the same time the serial data channel (interconnect, transmission line, backplane) speeds have not commensurately increased, leading to problems with signal degradation in the serial data channel. In addition, emerging serial data standards, such as USB 3.0, require simulation (emulation) of the signal transmission path to ensure reliable performance in all user environments. Lastly, serial data receiver hardware is specifically designed to equalize for signal degradation, yet engineers have no way of characterizing the performance of their measured signals with receiver equalization applied.

The solution is LeCroy’s Eye Doctor signal integrity tool set that provides capability for cable and test fixture deembedding, modeling of pre-emphasis and de-emphasis, serial data channel emulation, and serial data receiver equalization. It is now possible, within the scope environment and on full 256 Mpt record lengths, to compensate for or emulate signal path effects and serial data receiver equalization so as to precisely measure waveforms with the highest signal fidelity at any place in the test circuit under any test condition. With the launch of the WaveMaster 8 Zi, Eye Doctor is now available in a new, more streamlined and more easily accessible form.

Fast Throughput with X-Stream II Streaming Architecture
Designed for long memory operation and responsiveness X-Stream II technology enables high throughput of data- even when the oscilloscope is analyzing eight 256 Mpt waveforms. This architecture uses variable waveform segment lengths to improve CPU cache memory efficiency resulting in 10 to 20 times faster processing compared to other oscilloscopes. This eliminates the trade-offs between long memory length and quick processing. WaveMaster 8 Zi’s proprietary architecture design is augmented with an IntelCore 2 Quad processor, high-speed serial databuses, a 64-bit OS and up to 8 GB of processor RAM.

More Flexible and More Powerful Tools
The WaveMaster 8 Zi Series offers as standard more measure, math, graphing, statistical, frequency analysis, mask testing, and other tools, as well as more ways to leverage the tools to get answers faster. The WMZi-SPECTRUM option provides spectral analysis capability to measure power density, real, imaginary, and magnitude FFT types that emulate the operation of a spectrum analyzer. A table shows the peak spectra and levels for easy review. Parameter Math gives the fastest and most accurate calculations in an oscilloscope: 750,000 measurements per second. Parameters can be added, subtracted, multiplied or divided by any two standard or custom parameters. Eight Math/Zoom functions provide chained math on math operations. Only LeCroy completely integrates third party programs into the oscilloscope’s processing stream by allowing you to create and deploy a new measurement or math algorithm directly into the oscilloscope environment and display the result on the oscilloscope in real-time.

Cascade Triggering Helps to Isolate Rare Events Quickly
SMART triggers are further enhanced with the ability to sequence SMART and Edge triggers in up to a three trigger cascade arrangement to reduce the amount of time required to debug circuit and bus problems. For instance, a user could setup the Cascade to arm the trigger when a specified glitch was detected and then trigger when a specified slew rate condition was met, or use the slew rate to further qualify and then trigger on a third Edge event. Very fast (200ps) glitch and width triggering capability, a selection of 12 different SMART triggers, exclusion triggering, and ability to link a WaveScan search condition with the cascaded triggering sequence makes for a very powerful rare event isolator. This capability is standard in the WaveMaster 8 Zi Series.

Complete System Debug Capability
Like the recently launched WavePro 7 Zi Series, the 4 GHz to 30 GHz WaveMaster 8 Zi Series contains both 1 MΩ inputs for general purpose use and 50 Ω inputs for high speed signals. Combined with a high sample rate of 40 GS/s on all 4 channels and 80 GS/s interleaved (optional on some models); a long record length (10 Mpts/ch standard and up to 256 Mpts/ch with 512 Mpts interleaved at 80 GS/s); and a wide variety of probes, options, and accessories, the WaveMaster 8 Zi is the best and most complete system debug solution available. Debugging circuits requires multiple modes of triggering. In addition to a greater than 15 GHz edge trigger, the Cascade Trigger feature, 12 different SMART triggers, less than 200ps pulse width and glitch triggering, and exclusion triggering, a 3.125 Gb/s 80-bit high speed serial pattern trigger and low speed serial triggers (I2C, SPI, UART-RS232, CAN, LIN, and FlexRay) are available for the ultimate in triggering solutions.

The dual inputs provide the ability to use the widest range of probes of any oscilloscope, without requiring external adapters or power supplies. The Mixed Signal Oscilloscope (MSO) option (4 analog + 36 digital channels) makes the WaveMaster 8 Zi the highest frequency MSO available. TriggerScan and WaveScan, special modes for finding rare events and correlating what caused the problem, shorten the time to debug a new design. The complete LeCroy toolbox can be extended to the integrated second display in order to expand the oscilloscope’s workspace and effectiveness.

Integrated Second Display Provides More Insight
The advanced Zi oscilloscope platform provides more input, processing and analytical capability than any other oscilloscope available. The standard 15.3" display provides 50% more area to view acquisitions and analysis, compared to a 12.4" display. With the addition of the integrated second display, the viewing area triples. The integrated second display is identical to the main display and is conveniently aligned and attached above the main display. The oscilloscope grid may be split by the user between the two displays. Waveform acquisitions, math traces, or memory (reference) traces could be moved and viewed in either location. The two displays provide more vertical viewing capability than one, so waveform anomalies are easier to find. Furthermore, the second display provides more area for waveform analysis so that deep insight of complex problems can be quickly accomplished. The second display may also be used more conventionally to simultaneously run and view third party programs, such as MATLAB, or to view onscreen Help or the advanced LeCroy processing web.

TriggerScan Accumulates More Anomalies/Second
TriggerScan rare event capture technology detects and captures more anomalies per second. TriggerScan uses highspeed hardware to detect undesired behaviors, then captures and displays them in a persistence mode for additional analysis of glitches, runts, and timing anomalies. A built in trainer identifies normal signal behavior and then constructs a large set of rare event trigger setups that target abnormal behavior. TriggerScan captures only the signals of interest and provides answers in minutes instead of hours.

Disk Drive Analyzers

Based on the WaveMaster 8 Zi Series models, the DDA 8 Zi Series Disk Drive Analyzers are available in 16 and 25 GHz models and come equipped with 20 Mpts/ch acquisition memory. Dedicated disk drive measurements, trigger and zooming for failure analysis, and serial data measurement capability with a Disk Drive Analyzer user interface are also standard to address high capacity disk drive designs. Operate in either DDA or SDA mode to analyze the serial data links or the physical media behavior on a hard drive. All DDAs also include all capability included in SDAs (with the exception of the 3.125 Gb/s serial trigger).

Probes
LeCroy provides a range of high bandwidth probes and differential amplifiers from 11 to 18 GHz of bandwidth, most available with browser or solder-in tips. The recently launch WaveLink probes with up to 6 GHz of bandwidth are the perfect solution for 4 and 6 GHz WaveMaster 8 Zi models. Since the WaveMaster 8 Zi is equipped with a ProBus interface, a wide range of general purpose current probes, active voltage probes, high voltage probes, and passive probes and accessories are also available for use without requiring additional adapters, amplifiers or power supplies.