The BusXpert Hardware Advantage
SerialTek architectured the BusXpert to solve problems familiar to many SAS and SATA developers and integrators:
-
How to capture massive amounts of data and display it quickly.
-
How to be sure the data captured is accurate.
-
Once the data is captured, how to quickly search for areas of interest.
The BusXpert was designed with two separate control/upload pipes to the Host PC: PCI Express x4 and hardware-accelerated Gigabit Ethernet. PCI Express x4 is the fastest pipe available on the BusXpert hardware, offering speeds up to 550MB/s, and 150MB/s for a PCI Express x1 link. The hardware-accelerated Gigabit Ethernet clearly outperforms all other implementations of Gigabit Ethernet found in other platforms. The BusXpert PRO is the only SAS analyzer and SATA analyzer to offer hardware accelerated Gigabit Ethernet and PCI Express for the host interface. Below is a chart that shows the amount of time it takes to upload various size trace buffers over popular host interfaces. The trace buffer sizes are a sample of what is available in the test and measurement market today, but only the BusXpert offers buffer sizes over 16GB (can be configured with up to 36GB) in addition to the buffer sizes listed below
The BusXpert also features a Native PHY, fast data Re-Lock, 2ns timestamp resolution, Eye-Opener front-end, and tunable RX/TX signalling. The Native PHY along with SerialTek's proprietary Re-Lock implementation allows the BusXpert to achieve the industry's fastest PLL lock-time, resulting in extremely accurate capture during speed negotiation, power management, and SSC transmissions. A 2ns timestamp resolution allows for extra detailed timing information, especially useful with SAS wide links and is also helpful in determining if timing violations occurred during capture. This 2ns timestamp resolution is 3X more accurate than found in other competing solutions. The tunable RX/TX and Eye-Opener front-end allow the BusXpert's signal characteristics to be adjusted on the fly.
BusXpert's software architecture is also tuned for high-speed performance related to uploading and displaying the trace and also contains many other advantages allowing for searching, triggering, and saving. For more information regarding the software architecture please follow this link.
BusXpert PRO SAS/SATA Analyzer