Kodiak™ PCIe Gen5 Analysis System

PCIe Analysis Platform with Embedded Hardware
The platform features embedded hardware, calibration-free SI-Fi™ probing, automatic equalization, internal SSD storage, a touchscreen LCD, and standard PCIe cabling.

Efficient Setup and Trace Collection
The system allows for quick setup and seamless trace collection, streamlining the process from unboxing to data acquisition.

Compact and Portable Design
The system’s compact size enhances its portability and ease of movement, providing a more manageable alternative to larger competitor offerings.

Powerful SerialTek Features

• No tuning (calibration) required, Kodiak’s Rx automatically equalizes (EQs) the incoming PCIe signals at all data rates
• Embedded trace processing architecture and the fastest performance
• Up to 144GB Trace Buffers
• Internal up to 4TB Trace Storage (SSD) and access for multiple users
• Direct Attach Storage, including two PCIe OCuLink ports and two USB 3.2 ports
• Two 10GbE SFP+ (optical/copper) and one 1GbE RJ-45 connections for fast and reliable connectivity
• Multi-user access to Kodiak PCIe Gen5 Analyzer allow maximizing usage of test tool
• Real-time access to traces in memory prior to downloading
• Touchscreen LCD for analyzer configuration, control and status

Introducing the Timeline Widget

The Timeline widget is a powerful chart that provides a visual depiction of resource utilization during a defined timeframe. Its primary purpose is to facilitate accurate and efficient timing measurements, playing a crucial role in identifying and resolving timing issues. Furthermore, the widget serves as a valuable tool for illustrating the distribution of tasks and activities, offering valuable insights into the transactions/events and their respective timeframes. By leveraging the Timeline widget, users can gain a comprehensive understanding of resource allocation and make informed decisions based on the observed patterns and timing data.

In the context of BusXpert software, the Timeline widget specifically focuses on plotting events over time in relation to the PCI Express bus. By presenting a graphical depiction of bus activity, it allows users to analyze and interpret patterns of behavior, identify significant activity periods, and gain a comprehensive understanding of the recorded data.

The Timeline widget offers a detailed and versatile view of the trace content. When zoomed out, it provides an overview of the trace’s composition at a given time, presenting summarized information. Conversely, when zoomed in, it offers a granular perspective, enabling the visualization of individual events and their durations on the wire.

Precision Timing Analysis:

One of the innovative features in BusXpert software is the Instant Timing view, developed by SerialTek. This feature ensures precise synchronization of all captured packets and protocol events within the Timeline widget. It not only maintains tight timing accuracy but also synchronizes with other views, such as Details, Events, LTSSM, Transactions, etc.

To enhance precision timing analysis, the Timeline widget offers several helpful tools. These include manual timing cursors, delta time calculations, bookmarks, and fly-over indications. These tools enable users to perform detailed examinations, compare events, and gather valuable insights for troubleshooting and optimization purposes. They make it easier to measure specific time intervals, calculate time differences, mark important events, and obtain additional information when hovering over data points. The Timeline widget provides a user-friendly way to analyze timing data and troubleshoot issues, such as LTSSM problems.

Additionally, the Timeline widget provides essential bus throughput information, which proves particularly helpful in identifying and addressing data transfer issues. By capturing bus traffic, sideband signaling, and current/voltage concurrently and in precise synchronization, it equips users with comprehensive data for characterizing and resolving performance concerns.

The Timeline widget goes beyond by supporting power management analysis, enabling users to investigate power-related events like power-saving modes, entry and exit latency, and link state transitions. This feature empowers users to assess power-saving mechanisms, pinpoint any irregularities or inefficiencies in power management, and fine-tune power consumption for their system.

Additionally, the Timeline widget presents a clear picture of variations in link speed and width. Users can effortlessly track changes in these aspects over time, facilitating the identification of performance bottlenecks and the optimization of the system’s configuration to achieve optimal efficiency.

In summary, the Timeline widget in BusXpert software offers a comprehensive and intuitive visualization of resource utilization over time. With its precision timing analysis capabilities, it empowers users to uncover patterns, identify issues, optimize power management, and maximize performance by examining power-related events, link state variations, and throughput characteristics.

State-of-the-Art Architecture
The Kodiak PCIe Gen5 Analysis System represents the state-of-the-art in protocol analyzer design. The Kodiak platform includes an array of high-performance innovations, made possible by an advanced design that breaks free from cumbersome legacy data upload practices in favor of ultra-responsive embedded data processing. Interface responsiveness is markedly advanced, searches involving massive amounts of data are fast, and hardware filtering is flexible and powerful.

Combined with the BusXpert user interface, the Kodiak PCIe x16 Gen5 Analyzer features and benefits really shine. Based on an embedded software framework and REST API, BusXpert integrates with Kodiak hardware seamlessly. Accessed via a web browser or SerialTek’s Electron®-based app, BusXpert includes a suite of powerful triggers, filters, and trace processing capabilities coupled with a new user interface for fast, easy, and reliable decoding. Users can work with trace files collaboratively in real-time and even remotely verify proper configuration of the analyzer and interposers, including visual identification of cables, link status, recording status, and much more. The new REST API makes automation straightforward and efficient, providing programmatic facilities for monitoring and capturing traffic, statistical analyses, and detailed searching. Kodiak’s advanced hardware design also means there is no need to download a multi-gigabyte trace before the user can begin to review the analysis – data is ready immediately.

Kodiak Gen5 Trace Viewing Main

Transparency in Probe Design is Key
Driven by the need for ever-faster data transfers, PCI Express signaling has become exceptionally complex in design and difficult to monitor unobtrusively. With SerialTek’s SI-Fi™ interposer technology, the transmitter threshold and pre-emphasis from one link partner reaches the receiver of the other link partner, so the link properly trains to optimum conditions, making the interposer as transparent as possible.

At the core of this technology is a highly specialized linear amplifier design where PCIe analog signals are received at a differential input and distributed to two separate phase-matched differential outputs with a nominal, idealized gain of 0dB.

This approach results in easier set up of the analyzer and product under test and avoids a variety of limitations inherent to other probing approaches where link training sequences don’t pass through the interposer.

SerialTek’s SI-Fi™ interposer technology expands and enables coverage in critical test areas, including link training (LTSSM), Power Management, Hot Plug, Reset, and other situations where the physical link/lane characteristics may change.

Flexible Trace Storage and Retrieval
Kodiak includes two 10GbE SFP+ ports and a GbE port to offload traces to a host computer or network drive. Internal SSD trace storage of up to 4TB (with read-only access for other users log into the analyzer). Direct attach storage choices include two USB 3.1 ports and two PCIe 3.0 OCuLink ports for storage expansion.

Kodiak Gen5 Trace List View

No Need for Calibration
Competing PCIe Gen5 analyzers and interposers require lengthy tuning, or calibration, which leads to reliability issues as modern PCIe link training sequences can occur dynamically, not just at boot-up and errors in trace data. PCIe x16 Gen5 SI-Fi interposers are highly accurate electrically, simple to use, and secure safely to the customer’s device. No tuning (calibration) is necessary. Host and endpoint signals pass through the interposer, allowing for real-world PCIe link training and easier setup. With SI-Fi™ technology and Kodiak’s adaptive EQ capabilities, users can plug-n-capture, and save hours in setup time. And if the link characteristics change (e.g., Power Management, Hot-Plug or NSSR), Kodiak can track these changes dynamically and accurately without missing data, ultimately collect data in one shot.

Technical Specifications

Kodiak Enclosure

• Dimensions: 443 x 67 x 305 mm (17 x 2.6 x 12”)
• Weight: 7 kg (15 lbs)
• Mounting: 19” Rack Mount Option, Tilt Feet Option
• Ambient Operating Temperature: 5-35°C at up to 2133m (7000 feet) altitude

Displays and Indicators

• Front Panel LCD: 800×320 4.6” WCGA, Touchscreen
• System Status: RGB LED

Front-Panel Connectors

• Interposer Connection: 4x QSFP-DD
• Ethernet (10 GbE): 2x SFP+ Ports
• Ethernet (1 GbE): RJ45
• PCIe Interface: 2x OCuLink
• USB Interface: 2x USB 3.2 Type A

Rear-Panel Connectors

• Power: IEC C13, 90-264 Vac, 47-63 Hz
• Clock Out: SMA, 50 Ω, 3.3 Vdc, 10 MHz
• Clock In: SMA, 50 Ω, 3.3 Vdc, 10 MHz
• Trigger Out: SMA, 50 Ω, 3.3 Vdc
• Trigger In: SMA, 50 Ω, 3.3 Vdc

Warranty

• One to Three-year limited warranty, Analyzers
• Six-month limited warranty, Interposers

Maintenance and Licensing

• Includes lifetime software updates – no maintenance fees
• Includes full-featured viewer software – easily share and collaborate annotated traces between computers and colleagues and replay captured traffic
• Access SerialTek hardware from any PC and OS (MacOS, Windows, Linux) – no additional licenses needed

Minimum Requirements for standalone application

• Intel Core, 2 GHz or compatible processor
• 4 GB of RAM
• 1280 x 1024 display resolution with at least 65,536 colors
• 64-bit OS only (Windows 7, Ubuntu 14, Centos7 or higher)
• 1GbE controller