New TDS6000C Real-Time Oscilloscope and P7313 Z-Active Probe Offers Customers Uncompromised, Industry-Leading Performance

Beaverton, Ore.---Tektronix, Inc., a leading worldwide provider of test, measurement and monitoring instrumentation, announces the world's fastest, most capable real-time oscilloscopes and a new probe that will facilitate designs in the computing, communications, and consumer electronics industries based upon second-generation serial data standards such as second-generation PCI-Express, SATAIII and double XAUI. Tektronix is introducing new members of the TDS6000 family of digital storage oscilloscopes (DSO)---the 12 GHz TDS6124C and the record-breaking 15 GHz TDS6154C---along with the P7313 Z-Active low-loading probe. The new products offer customers uncompromised industry-leading performance for the most demanding applications.

To keep pace with the worldwide explosion of high-speed technologies, engineers are tasked with developing the next-generation systems that operate at serial data rates in excess of 4 Gb/s. This will lead to faster, more sophisticated computers, data storage networks, wired and wireless technologies, and consumer electronics. Based upon leading-edge third-generation silicon germanium (SiGe) integrated circuits developed in partnership with IBM, the new oscilloscopes offer the highest bandwidth, longest record length and timing resolution, lowest noise floor, and the most complete analysis capabilities for current and emerging serial data standards. The new Tektronix oscilloscopes and probe provide unmatched performance and productivity for engineers designing ultra-high-speed electronics.

"Industry trends are driving markets to develop ever faster and more capable technologies," said Kiran Unni, Frost & Sullivan test and measurement industry analyst. "Electrical system designers demand the very best performance and precision from their test and measurement instruments. With the highest bandwidth and the longest record length at maximum sample rate, the new TDS6124C and TDS6154C provide impressive gains and will deliver to customers the highest performance for capturing and analyzing high-speed serial data on multiple channels at long time windows and with the best timing resolution."

"Our customers have been telling us that they want high bandwidth, fast rise times, long record length, and comprehensive support for next generation serial standards," said Colin Shepard, vice president, Performance Oscilloscopes, Tektronix. "With the new oscilloscopes and probe, Tektronix has raised the benchmark for performance. The combination of new TDS6000C oscilloscopes and the Z-Active P7313 low-loading probe provides customers with uncompromised performance; the fastest, most capable, and most complete design and test instrumentation giving engineers working on high-speed serial data applications a superior solution in every way."

Oscilloscopes Provide World's Best Performance

Engineers who need to precisely characterize a signal need to acquire energy at the fifth harmonic. The TDS6154C is the only oscilloscope able to capture the fifth harmonic of the highest frequency pattern for next-generation serial standards such as 5 to 6.25 Gb/s second-generation PCI-Express, 6 Gb/s SATA III, and 6.25 Gb/s double XAUI. The TDS6154C is also the only oscilloscope able to capture the critical third harmonic of a 10 Gb/s signal.

The TDS6124C provides 12 GHz true analog bandwidth and user-selectable DSP for channel-to-channel and unit-to-unit matching. The TDS6154C also includes user-selectable DSP for channel-to-channel and unit-to-unit matching plus bandwidth extension to 15 GHz. DSP adjusts the response throughout the bandwidth of the scope to accurately reflect magnitude and corrects phase response to make it linear. The TDS6154C is able to measure rise/fall times of 30 ps (typical) with accuracy to within five percent (20/80 percent rise time).

Both the TDS6124C and TDS6154C provide 40 GS/s sample rate on two channels simultaneously and up to 64M optional record length on two channels (2M on four channels standard). This equates to the longest time window of 1.6 ms at full bandwidth and 25 ps sample interval ensuring the best resolution at full performance compared to alternative products. The TDS6000C family provides a random jitter noise floor of 420 fs rms (typical) for critical jitter measurements, lower than any competing instruments at comparable bandwidth.

"Tektronix has a reputation of offering the finest test and measurement products," said Jeff Johnson, Engineering Services project manager, Cadence Design Systems. "With these new oscilloscopes, Tektronix provides our engineers with industry-leading features and great performance at all stages of high speed IC and board-level design, validation, compliance, and debug. The latest improvements in banner specifications, as well as the broad and deep set of serial data applications provided with these new oscilloscopes, give our services teams critical capabilities for capturing and analyzing important signals to resolve tough IC and board-level high-speed design challenges.

The SiGe Z-active probing architecture of the new P7313 offers high speed (>12.5 true bandwidth, typical), high DC impedance, fast rise time (25 ps 20/80 percent), and the stable high frequency loading of Z0 probes to provide high bandwidth, flat frequency response, low-loading, and low noise differential for high-speed circuit designers. Detachable Tip-Clip Assemblies for the P7313 make it possible to replace a tip for a fraction of the cost formerly associated with such hardware changes. Moreover, the Tip-Clip Assemblies are interchangeable depending on the connectivity needs, providing a large degree of flexibility for using the probe.

The unique Pinpoint Trigger System is the world's only complete A/B triggering and provides glitch/width triggering down to 100 ps. The Pinpoint Trigger System in the TDS6000C family provides advanced serial pattern triggering up to 3.125 Gb/s in the new TDS6124C and TDS6154C. In addition, a new option provides oscilloscope 8b/10b protocol triggering and decoding with which designers can trigger on four consecutive 10b symbols or defined errors. This means that incoming data can be triggered on in real-time without post processing, enabling designers to actually trigger on a fault rather than just hoping to find it through repeated searches.

"Characterizing serial data signals with embedded clocks has historically been a significant challenge," said Galen Wampler, president, Prime Data. "Signal standards such as second-generation PCI-Express or double XAUI require instruments that can acquire these complex signals at ultra fast rates and that can be used for precise characterization. The new models in the Tektronix TDS6000C series with the 8b/10b hardware triggering and decoding provide an exemplary real-time, ultra high-bandwidth oscilloscope for the most demanding serial data applications." Silicon Germanium at Heart

At the heart of the new TDS6000C oscilloscopes and P7313 probe are third-generation 0.18-um BiCMOS SiGe (7HP process) ASICs optimized for high-performance applications and designed in partnership with IBM. The technology offers peak performance for applications requiring high speed transfer of data, low noise, high linearity and low power consumption. IBM's SiGe technology uses a heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) which includes a graded germanium profile to increase electron transfer. This high-performance material allows for high integration of functions, smaller chip size and amazing speed.

"IBM and Tektronix both have a rich heritage of technology excellence," said David Harame, director of enablement and IBM fellow, Systems and Technology Group, IBM. "The companies have worked closely for eight years to optimize silicon germanium technology for test and measurement applications. The results of this work are the highest performing ASICs in the Test & Measurement industry that appear in the TDS6124C and TDS6154C DSOs and the P7313 probe. This industry-leading technology assists customers with their efforts to be at the forefront of electronic innovation."

In the world of top-drawer digital storage oscilloscopes, leapfrogging the competition is a matter of course. But it's the pace of the leapfrogging that's astonishing.

Only a few scant months have passed since Agilent Technologies took the scope world by storm with its Infiniium DSO80000 Series of DSOs (digital storage o'scopes) with a 13-GHz bandwidth model, accompanied by equally impressive InfiniiMax II Series probes.

Agilent's scopes broke the double-digit realtime bandwidth barrier for the first time, and boasted maximum sampling rates of 40-Gsamples/s. Moreover, Agilent debuted its DSO80000 DSOs with 10-GHz, 12-GHz, and 13-GHz versions, too; just the ticket for working with high-speed serial buses, RF, and other ultra-high-speed systems, whatever your budget.

Now Tektronix ups the ante.

Its new 12-GHz TDS6124C, priced at $100,000, and its flagship 15-GHz TDS6154C, priced at $125,000, are four-channel instruments. These deep-memory instruments, and the new SiGe (silicon-germanium) active P7313 probe that goes with them, join the company's existing TDS6000B Series of digital scopes.

Third-Gen SiGe

Notably, these latest TDS6000C models use third-generation SiGe ASICs, mutually developed with IBM. An accord between the two companies gives Tektronix early access to IBM's 0.18-µm BiCMOS SiGe technology.

For Agilent's part in the highly competitive high-speed oscilloscope and instrumentation semiconductor game, it draws upon its extensive arsenal of microwave IC technologies.

Building On Forerunners

Back to the Tektronix-IBM nexus. It also builds on previous-generation IBM SiGe technology, with the latest IBM 7HP process ASICs being used in the new TDS6000's wideband front-end pre-amps and 40-GHz track-and-holds (Tektronix uses an earlier SiGe process for the scope's interleaved A/D converters).

But wait. There's more, including packaging, and even co-design, between the scope ASICs and board-level interconnect. In fact, Tektronix made simultaneous thrusts in packaging technology as the ASIC development proceeded.

Tek's microelectronics group worked closely with IBM and Maxtek, a Tektronix company specializing in high performance microelectronics packaging. As a result, a new multi-layer substrate was defined for the TDS6000s.

Serial Standards Challenges

Like Agilent's wares, these Tektronix scopes confront next-generation serial bus measurement problems head-on.

Indeed, serial standards such as SATA III (Serial ATA III) are driving bandwidth requirements for scopes like these. At the same time, transmission schemes such as LVDS (low-voltage differential signaling) means you've got to look at signals down in the 300-mV regime.

Design validation and debugging is calling for ever-longer acquisition record lengths, too, as well as specialized serial triggers that can capture complex sequences. If you're involved with compliance testing, you know what I'm referring to.

That's where Tek's two new TDS6000C models shine. Like Agilent's scopes, these DSOs work at sample rates of up to 40-Gsamples/s. What's more, both of Tektronix's scopes also make use of calibrated DSP-based FIR (finite impulse response) filters to compensate for magnitude and phase response shifts.

Thanks to the on-board DSP, the TDS6124C gives you tight channel-matching and accuracy at its full 12 GHz bandwidth. For its part, Tektronix's top-end TDS6154 uses the same DSP filtering, extending maximum bandwidth to 15 GHz.

Click on the image of this bandwidth curve for Tek's scope

Click to read Acrobat-file white paper

A good feature is that the DSP functions can be switched off on a channel-by-channel basis. That's exactly what you want if you prefer to post-process raw acquisition data using other downstream tools.

Nonetheless, using the DSP bandwidth extension will support measurements of very fast risetime signals. For example, a TDS6154 is able to let you look at and measure rise times (measured from the traditional 20% to 80% points) of a sensational 40-ps, within 3% accuracy.

Harmonics, Harmonics

The ability to capture harmonic details of very fast serial data streams is also significant. When I sat down to drive a TDS6154, one of the first things Tek marketing manager Tomas Berghall emphasized to me was that many users want to capture at least the third harmonic, and preferably the fifth harmonic, of the highest frequency data pattern they're encountering. Check out the table to get an idea of the frequencies involved.

"In the case of SATA III serial signals at 6-Gsamples/s," says Berghall, "fifth-harmonic frequencies go up to 15 GHz. The TDS6154C---alone in its class---can acquire this harmonic."

Protocol Triggering

Berghall also emphasizes the TDS6000C Series's range of triggering choices, including unique protocol triggering. "Options include serial pattern triggering at data rates to 3.125-Gbits/s," he points out, "as well as an 8b/10b protocol trigger and data decoding application.

"You can trigger on protocol primitives and characters in realtime, too, and select patterns from a list of standards-specific primitives. You can specify 8b/10b encoded characters and sequences for your trigger, and trigger on 8b/10b coding errors."

The two new TDS6000Cs also offer the full set of Tek's Pinpoint triggering features first rolled out in the company's predecessor 8-GHz TDS6000B.

The Pinpoint trigger system, thanks to SiGe circuitry, provides trigger sensitivity of up to 9-GHz, and permits selection of all trigger types on both A and B trigger circuits. Berghall says the scope's B trigger (delayed) can respond to the same range of signal conditions as the A trigger. "The result," he contends, "is a range of triggering choices that can let you catch 100-ps pulses and glitches. Trigger jitter is also less than 1.3-ps (RMS).

"What's more, you can get more than 1400 different combinations. That can help you isolate individual events using a hierarchy of criteria, including time, amplitude, pattern, and state conditions. In contrast, typical triggering systems give you 17 combinations."

Bergall pints out that competitive trigger systems offer multiple trigger types only on a single event (A Event), with delayed trigger (B Event) selection limited to edge-type triggering. "That often doesn't provide a way to reset the trigger sequence if the B-event doesn't occur.

"With Pinpoint triggering, a full suite of trigger types on both A and B triggers, with Reset triggering to begin the trigger sequence again after a specified time, state or transition occurs, lets you capture events in the most complex signals."

Protocol And PHY Layer Signals

Tek's protocol trigger and data decoding application also lets you decode, and simultaneously display, protocol-level information and PHY (physical layer) signaling. In conjunction with the serial pattern triggering, you can also trigger on protocol primitives and characters, in realtime up to 3.125 Gbits/s.

For compliance testing and viewing of eye diagrams, pseudo-random bit stream data patterns are gaining favor as evaluation and compliance tools, and these DSOs let you make automated eye diagram measurements, and correlate events across PHY and link layers to watch signals and traffic.

"But," emphasizes Berghall, "these patterns are notoriously long. They often must be acquired at full sample rate, too, which can equate to capturing tens of millions of sample points in a scope's acquisition memory."

Addressing that conundrum, Tek's TDS6000C scopes can be configured with memory depth to 64-Mpoints, which is usable at the full sample rate. This memory is entirely separate from the scope's front-end acquisition circuitry.

"That's sufficient even for the long PRBS patterns currently emerging in some compliance guidelines," says Berghall. "The simultaneous 64-Mbit record-length, and 40-Gsample/s sample rate at full bandwidth, gives you a 1.6-ms time window.

A pseudo-random bit stream exercise known as the PRBS23-1 test and SSC (spread spectrum clock) modulation measurements both require long record length at high sample rates. "A PRBS pattern of 2^23-1 is 8 million bits of data," says Berghall. "That needs a 58-Mpoint record over 1.4-ms, and this scope can handle that.

"Contrast that to a scope with, say, 2-Mpoints of memory. It can store only about 50-µs-worth of full-bandwidth signal data. The PRBS23-1 test, for example, generates nearly 8,400,000 bits of data, amounting to almost 57 million samples."

Similarly, an SSC measurement (a common requirement for serial standards such as SATA II) captures ten cycles of a slow modulation envelope while sampling the data at full sample rate. Such a test typically accumulates more than 12 million samples needed to evaluate compliance with the standard.

Compliance And Analysis Executables

Not mentioned in Tek's press statement is the fact that the company also offers an optional compliance and analysis package for these scopes. Running on the scopes themselves, Tek's RT-Eye Serial Data Compliance and Analysis software can also be installed on any model in the company's TDS6000 Series line-up (as well as some other Tektronix products).

The package brings standard-specific parametrics, standard-specific application modules, and user-customized masks and measurements to TDS6000 platforms. Using RT-Eye's standards-specific plug-in modules, you can observe eye diagrams to 6.25-Gbits/s---and beyond, measuring amplitude, timing, and jitter. Tek's R_j/D_j decomposition method also meets industry standards (T11.2 MJSQ). Applications supported include PCI Express and PCI Express Gen II, SAS, Infiniband, 2X XAUI, and a raft of others.

What's more, custom masks, measurement limits, and reporting for both emerging and proprietary standards are also available as software plug-ins.

Cost-Of-Ownership

Tek's press release covers its new interchangeable-tip P7313 probe rather well, but I should point out that this $10,000 probing system, with its detachable Tip-Clips, also promises low cost-of-ownership.

"Unlike Agilent's InfiniiMax II solder tips that are priced at about $400 a pop," says Berghall, "our Tip-Clips cost about $25 each." Berghall points out that that means you might be more inclined to sprinkle test points onto a board a bit more liberally. Depending on how many points you want to probe, the Tip-Clips promise to save you money.

Finally, Tektronix's Z-Active architecture combines passive circuitry and active amplification. Tek claims the combo delivers the highest DC load impedance in its class. Tek also says its new approach has the lowest AC loading out to the bandwidth of the probe.

Want to get all the details? Contact Tomas Berghall at Tektronix, Inc., Worldwide Sales, Service and marketing, 13975 S.W. Karl Braun Dr., M/S 50-237, Beaverton, Ore. 97077-0001. Phone Berghall at (503) 627-3097. Fax; (503) 627-6598.