BERTScope Newsletter  April 2009
 
Welcome

Welcome to the BERTScope Newsletter – the latest hints, tricks, and tutorials on signal integrity measurements from SyntheSys Research, Inc. We hope that you will enjoy this and future editions.


How-to Articles

Why Different Instruments Give Different Jitter Answers

Why Do Different Instruments Give Different Jitter Answers? Application Note
Signal integrity engineers complain that every high speed instrument in their lab gives a different answer when measuring jitter. Here we look at some reasons why ... Read More

Testing an SFP+ Transceiver to the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Electrical Specifications

Getting the Right Stress at the IC Pins –
De-Embedding with BERTScope
 The product note discusses a methodology for delivering an accurate, calibrated stressed eye to the pins of an IC under test; as an example, using compensation of a 17-inch trace to deliver a compliant SFP+ stressed eye ... Read More

Testing an SFP+ Transceiver to the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Electrical Specifications

Testing an SFP+ Transceiver to the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Electrical Specs
In this product note, we examine the transmitter electrical input specifications and receiver electrical output specifications of a limiting variant SFP+ transceiver and active SFP+ cable for 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) applications ... Read More


Great Resources

Jitter Map: BER-based jitter decomposition

Jitter Map "Under the Hood" – A New Methodology for Jitter Separation
Jitter Map, an innovative new capability on the BERTScope, bridges the gap between sophisticated jitter component analysis using oscilloscopes and the confidence of deep, BER-based total jitter measurements ...  Find out more here


What's New at SyntheSys?

Jitter Map screenshot

BER-based jitter decomposition – Jitter Map can help you, even with PRBS-31 challenges ... Read more about our introductory offers

BERTScope Si 17.5 Gb/s Analyzer

BERTScopes now go faster – Check out the new BERTScope Si 17500C

DisplayPort

BERTScope is the only approved solution for DisplayPort™ CTS 1.1 sink testing. See our DisplayPort solution here.


Come and See Us at...

Where in the World?

PCI-SIG APAC Compliance Workshop #66
Taipei, Taiwan April 20-24, 2009

SATA-IO Interop #7 / SATA-IO Plugfest #12
Milpitas, California June 8-11, 2009

PCI-SIG Developers Conference 2009
Santa Clara, California July 15-16, 2009

Question:  What’s the big deal about calibrating the amplitudes in a compliance test stress recipe? Can’t I just directly enter the stress amplitudes called out in a compliance test into the pattern generator?

Answer:   Generally, no.
The stress amplitudes of an instrument are specified at the output connectors. Even using the best quality cables, the interconnections between the pattern generator and DUT will introduce frequency dependent loss, which affects the amplitudes of all of the stress components used in the compliance test “stress recipe.”
To assure repeatable test results, the stress levels must be calibrated at the end of the cables that connect with the DUT, or at the IC pins.
What really matters is the stability of the stress amplitudes once they are adjusted to de-embed the test setup.


Science Puzzler

Have you ever noticed the thin fog that gathers at the mouth of a chilled bottle of carbonated liquid just after it’s opened? What causes the fog?

(Click for Answer)

Quote of Note

"It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it."

— W. Somerset Maugham
(1874-1965), British
novelist and playwright

Guess What?

Guess What? (Click for answer)


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