Tektronix delivers complete DDR memory test bench

Gina Roos

eeProductCenter (03/17/2008 2:37 PM ET)

Beaverton, Ore. — Tektronix, Inc. has released a comprehensive test tool set for DDR2 and new DDR3 SDRAM technology, developed to deliver higher performance data rates. The Tektronix DDR test solution, including the new TLA7BB4 acquisition module, supports all speeds of DDR, DDR2 and DDR3 and spans both analog and digital domains.

The DDR3 standard supports data rates of 800 mega transfers per second (MT/s) to 1600 MT/s with clock frequencies of 400 MHz to 800 MHz respectively, which is double the speed of DDR2 technology. DDR3 is well-suited for high-performance applications such as file servers, video on demand, encoding and decoding, gaming, and 3-D visualization.

For digital validation and debug, the TLA7000 logic analyzer and the new TLA7BB4 acquisition module are said to provide the only logic analysis solution available to address all speeds of DDR, DDR2 and DDR3, including DDR3-1600. The solution is also said to provide a cost savings of up to 30 percent over existing methods.

The TLA7BB4 with Nexus Technology DDR3/DDR2 Protocol Violation Software automates the analysis of a DDR2 or DDR3 bus to identify protocol violations, frequency of those violations, and also provide a global view of all the DDR commands in the logic analyzer memory. Physical link analysis is performed using a DSA8200 sampling oscilloscope for TDR-based signal path characterization and circuit board verification.

For analog validation and debug, the new DDR Analysis option (opt. DDRA) on the DSA70000 family of digital serial analyzers along with matching P7500 TriMode active differential probes and DPOJET measurement software, provide a debug tool set that automatically identifies reads and writes, and performs clock, jitter, amplitude, timing, and eye diagram measurements. New DDR probe tips for the P7500 series are able to attach to hard to reach portions of the device under test.

Availability: Components of the DDR test suite are available from Tektronix. Additional elements for logic analyzer memory support including DDR3/DDR2 Protocol Violation Software are available for purchase from Nexus Technology
Product information: test solutions for DDR memory

Tektronix, www.tektronix.com