United States
Agilent Technologies introduces industry-first ATCA probing solutions
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Offering enables more flexible connectivity for protocol analysis and traffic generation of ASI CHICAGO, Supercomm, Booth No. 32015, June 7, 2005
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced the first Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) probing solutions, which include additional support for the Advanced Mezzanine Cards (AMC) standard and help developers increase flexibility in testing their high-speed standards. The ATCA standard is a new, open industry specification sponsored by the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) for carrier-grade equipment incorporating high-speed switched fabric technology. The Agilent E2943A ATCA active interposer probe board and the E2944A ATCA passive interposer probe board enable design and verification engineers to quickly and thoroughly test designs and boards based on the ATCA backplane form factor, from first board turn-on to overall backplane verification. Software and hardware engineers in R&D, validation and quality assurance can test either single or multiple ATCA interfaces within a backplane with complete test coverage. This reduces the risk of expensive, time-consuming rework while increasing test coverage dramatically. The Agilent E2943A active probe board is the key probing solution for the exerciser to be plugged in the ATCA backplane to emulate real ASI designs or topologies. The active probe board also offers analyzer and exerciser support for the new AMC standard. The Agilent E2944A passive probe board enables nonintrusive capturing of ASI transactions between two line cards in the ATCA-based backplane. Alternatively, the exerciser can be used to emulate one of the line cards of the test setup. The ATCA standard is capable of switching and processing 2.5 terabits per second in a single shelf. ATCA will incorporate the latest trends in high-speed interconnect technologies, next-generation processors and improved reliability, manageability and serviceability. The AMC is an additional PICMG standard, which defines the base-level requirements for a wide range of high-speed mezzanine cards optimized for ATCA carriers. The Agilent E2943A and E2944A comprise the industry's first solution that provides this ATCA interposer probing with AMC support for protocol analysis as well as protocol exercising. It is ideal for bring-up and debug, validation and compliance testing of ATCA form-factor-based ASI boards and backplanes. ASI is a switched-fabric standard based on PCI Express technology that allows computer components such as CPU nodes and IO nodes to be interconnected in a variety of topologies. ATCA is the key mechanical form factor used for ASI applications. With the Agilent E2980A, Agilent provides the industry's most complete offering for ASI protocol analysis, traffic generation and ATCA probing with AMC support. "Hardware bring-up, testing and validation are critical elements for any new design," said Rajeev Kumar, president of the Advanced Switching Interconnect Special Interest Group (ASI SIG) and ASI Initiatives manager at Intel Corp. "Agilent is among several companies demonstrating a leadership role in the industry by being first to market on tools to support Advanced Switching Interconnect and the ASI SIG's compliance program. The Agilent offering with Analyzer and Exerciser including ATCA probing gives the telecommunication and computing industry new tools to test their designs to accelerate time to market, required for a fast technology adoption as well as protecting their investment in PCI Express test equipment." "The new Agilent ATCA probing solutions are an important expansion of the PCI Express probing portfolio, with midbus and interposer probing supporting the entire suite of form factors used by our customers," said Siegfried Gross, vice president and general manager for Agilent's Digital Verification Solutions division. "This offering in conjunction with the System Protocol Tester Analyzer/Exerciser reflects Agilent's commitment to the ASI and ATCA ecosystem, and to providing our customers flexibility in testing their high-speed standards." U.S. Pricing and Availability The Agilent E2943A and E2944A can be ordered now, with shipments starting in August 2005. The E2943A active interposer probe board is priced at $14,500, and the E2944A passive interposer probe board is priced at $20,400. More information about the Agilent E2943A, E2944A and the E2980A is available at www.agilent.com/find/ASI. Photos of the product are available at www.agilent.com/find/E2980A_images. About Agilent Technologies Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is the world's premier measurement company and a technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company's 28,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $7.2 billion in fiscal year 2004. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com. # # # Contact: Janet Smith, Agilent Johanna Vallecillo |
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