Agilent's PCIe 2.0 test platform supports I/O virtualization

-- Test & Measurement World, 7/23/2008 10:00:00 AM

To reduce the complexity of testing and debugging, new software capabilities have been added to Agilent Technologies' E2960B Series protocol analyzer and LTSSM exerciser platform for PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 designs. The software package supports the PCI-SIG Single-Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) and Multi-Root I/O Virtualization (MR-IOV) specifications and builds on the PCIe protocol stack, which makes it possible to run multiple systems' images on a common hardware platform.

"The PCI-SIG SR-IOV and MR-IOV specifications provide a standardized way of addressing the growth of virtualization requirements and ensure higher performance I/O for virtualized systems," said Al Yanes, PCI-SIG President and Chairman. "We are pleased to see Agilent's continued support in developing test tools that expedite the industry adoption of these new features in PCIe 2.0."

Agilent claims that the new software for its E2960B protocol analyzer and LTSSM exerciser reduces the overall purchasing-cost per server by using virtual servers and shared hardware. It also reduces the total cost of ownership of a data center by minimizing power and optimizing cooling costs. This capability allows devices to dynamically train down the link width for periods of low traffic to save power and train up the link width for periods of high utilization.

For dynamic link width configuration, Agilent added new tests to the LTSSM tester and exerciser to validate the ability of the device to react to requests to train up or to train down. Both these new technologies are supported in Agilent's protocol analyzer for PCIe with this new software release.

 This new software package, including PCI-SIG IOV support and dynamic link width configuration, is available free of charge to all Agilent E2960B customers via a simple software upgrade at www.agilent.com/find/sptdownload.