Teledyne LeCroy PCIe 4.0 x4 EDSFF Interposer for SSD Protocol Analysis

Teledyne LeCroy, Inc. introduces their latest interposer card for analysis of enterprise and datacenter small form factor (EDSFF) E1.S and E1.L type SSDs and devices.

The ESDFF interposer works in combination with the Summit family of protocol analyzers and utilizes the PCIe 4.0 specification with data rates from 2.5GT/s up to 16GT/s and link widths of up to x4.

EDSFF devices make up a growing segment of the storage devices market. The EDSFF interposer card, previously known as the Ruler SSD (RSSD) form factor, works in combination with the Summit PCIe protocol analyzer to monitor, capture, and record PCIe traffic between a host backplane and EDSFF devices. Now engineers developing and troubleshooting EDSFF devices have a way to capture and analyze the transmitted PCIe 4.0 data.

“EDSFF SSDs will become an important part of the enterprise and datacenter in the near future. The PCIe 4.0 x4 EDSFF interposer provides the flexibility to use one interposer to support multiple form factors for monitoring the PCIe 4.0 protocol activity on a port,” said John Wiedemeier, senior product marketing manager, protocol solutions group, Teledyne LeCroy. “Development and test engineers will find this tool essential to investigating issues in the protocol architecture that can be difficult to find. Additionally, they can rely on Teledyne LeCroy’s expertise and experience in the PCIe and NVMe protocols to ensure they have up-to-date decodes and the latest set of analysis tools and reports. All of this drastically shortens development and testing cycles.“

This interposer supports PCIe host interfaces including the NVMe protocol at data rates up to 16GT/s and link widths of up to x4. The PCIe 4.0 x4 EDSFF Interposer provides connectivity and monitoring capability for E1.S or E1.L type devices targeted at enterprise systems that use the SFF-TA-1002 multi-lane card edge connector. Four form factor types can be analyzed using this EDSFF Interposer: Both the EDSFF 1U short/narrow and EDSFF 1U short/wide form factors as defined in SFF-TA-1006 specification as well as the two 1U long version form factors as defined in the SFF-TA-1007 specification. The interposer taps all PCIe protocol traffic between the host and EDSFF device or SSD and records it on the Summit PCIe 4.0 protocol analyzer where protocol issues and performance metrics can be further analyzed and debugged.

The company was the first firm to introduce a PCIe protocol analyzer with NVMe decoding functionality. Since that time the company has added decoding for SCSI Express (SOP/PQI) and SATA Express (AHCI/PCIe). Integrating all three PCIe SSD technologies into a single protocol analyzer gives developers versatile tools that can show essential details regarding proper data transmission and bus performance. These tools have been at the center of the PCIe SSD interoperability testing that has occurred over the last several years. 

The PCIe 4.0 x4 EDSFF interposer is available to order.