Waveform viewing technology revamps signal integrity analysis

Waveform viewing technology revamps signal integrity analysis

Semiconductor solution provider Vitesse Semiconductor (Camarillo, CA) recently announced VScope, an IC-based waveform-viewing technology that promises to redefine the dynamics and economies of backplane design, signal integrity analysis, test and measurement equipment, and remote monitoring in communication systems. The technology embeds the oscilloscope function into the receiver of ICs in order to offer direct access to more accurate signal characteristics without the use of traditional lab oscilloscopes that view signal from outside the chipallowing more room for error (poor measurements techniques, flawed specifications, and extrapolated view of the signals from outside the chip).

Advanced high-speed IC-based oscilloscope function changes the economics of signal integrity analysis and network reliability.

Vscope technology leapfrogs current signal integrity methods to scan the input data eye within the chip itself. Its data acquisition architecture uses dual adjustable sampling channels for simultaneously receiving and scanning. One channel continues to carry live data while the voltage/phase-sampling point of the parallel channel is varied. While it reflects the true behavior of the data stream as it is captured, it avoids correlation errors between the measurement circuitry and live data path. In addition, the economies of scale are greatly amplified by the embedded VScope waveform-viewing function on ICs. For more information about VScope, visit http://www.vitesse.com/VScope. Evaluation boards will be available in the second quarter.

Christina Nickolas