N5991 Receiver Compliance Test Automation Platform

Introduction

The N5991P PCI Express receiver test automation software family covers various specification revisions and form factors

N5991 Product Line

High-speed digital standards are quickly evolving to keep pace with emerging technologies such as 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and autonomous vehicles.

Each generational change introduces new test challenges for your digital designs. You need to test your high-speed digital designs across all product development stages — from design and simulation to analysis, debugging, and compliance testing. The N5991 product line anticipates test challenges, optimizes performance, and accelerates time-to-market of your high-speed computing interfaces, data[1]center connections, and consumer electronics.

•  Supported standards, which include PCIe, SAS, SATA, USB, HDMI, DisplayPort, and MIPI C-PHY.

Other standards will be continuously added with the requirements for higher data-speed testing

•  Guided setup with automated fast stress signal calibration and compliance measurement functions

•  Modern look and feel with enhanced functionalities

•  System modularity allows the user to enable only required functionalities

•  HTML reports

•  Node-locked and transportable licenses

•  Characterization mode for in-depth testing

•  Single- and multi-lane device testing

Turn Your Instruments into a Solution

An efficient test strategy is a proven competitive advantage. The Keysight Technologies N5991 is the successor to the well-known industry standard N5990A test automation software platform. It follows the same concept – combining the performance of your instruments with the convenience of your PC. The system’s software provides unprecedented test integration, high-throughput, and ease-of-use for a wide range of stimulus and response systems, providing a level of control that transforms a collection of instruments into a universal, user-friendly and highly productive test solution.

Standardize Your Test

The N5991 receiver-test options provide dedicated receiver compliance tests for popular and emerging digital buses. The user can choose compliance mode for fast reassurance, or characterization mode for in-depth analysis. The Receiver Test Automation Platform’s compliance testing capabilities have been repeatedly proven at interoperability workshops (“plug fests”). The N5991 builds on the success of previous generations to deliver significant gains in productivity. Like its predecessor, the N5990A, the new system makes it easy to test multiple buses by using the same interface for all available standards. It delivers additional gains by using familiar HTML for reporting results.

Test Selection and Test Results

The test automation software platform lets you select tests from an intuitive tree structure with multiple levels of detail. Select the tests you want to run, together with the number of repetitions. Test results are provided in HTML format. When you measure a parameter range, it delivers a specific graph and a related data table (see Figure 2)

Computer Bus Applications – PCI Express

The N5991 is designed to meet the needs of the data center application space, with many high-speed links within and between servers. It utilizes the Keysight M8040A High-Performance BERT with Baud rates up to 64 GBaud and the ability to encode data in NRZ and PAM4. This makes the software the center piece of Keysight’s data center receiver test solutions, specifically targeting PCI Express receiver testing at transfer rates of 32 GT/s,16 GT/s and 8 GT/s.