Product Update

It may look like just another connector, but the DSTni-Xport is much more. Within its housing resides a 10Base-T/100Base-T interface, a Web server, and a TCP/IP protocol stack. You can program the device to generate E-mails. The module has also an optional 128-bit encryption for secure transmissions. It's all you need to add LAN connectivity to any circuit board. Price: $33 in quantities of $10,000. Lantronix, Irvine, CA. 949-453-3990; www.lantronix.com.

Many test applications rely on the good old RS-232 serial port. With the Ultra Comm+8.LPCI, you can use one PCI slot to add eight serial ports to any computer that runs the Windows, DOS, QNX, or Linux operating systems.

The card complies with the PCI Special Interest Group (PCISIG) requirements for low-profile systems, and it fits into 1U-size servers. You get both a low-profile mounting bracket and a standard mounting bracket. The Ultra Comm+8.LPCI is compatible with computers that supply either 3.3 V or 5 V. It operates at data rates up to 460.8 kbits/s and includes a 128-byte, first-in, first-out (FIFO) buffer. Price: $399. Sealevel Systems, Liberty, SC. 864-843-4343; www.sealevel.com.

Ixia's line of communications test equipment now includes a bit-error-rate tester (BERT) for OC-768 (40 Gbits/s) signals, whether the data stream is in serial or parallel form. The LM40GBERT module accepts either serial or parallel interfaces. Serial transmitter and receiver interfaces let you test devices such as laser diodes. Through the SFI-5 parallel electrical interface, you can test signals on backplanes, in connectors, and on boards.

BER testing requires sending a pseudorandom bit sequence (PRBS) data pattern. The LM40GBERT produces data streams at PRBS lengths from 2⁷-1 bits to 2³¹-1 bits. You can also define your own bit patterns up to 8 Mbits long. After receiving the test bits, the BERT calculates statistics and delivers reports on parameters such as error count, BER, and errored seconds.

The LM40GBERT inserts into Ixia's model 400T or 1600T mainframes. You can program it for using Tcl, a popular scripting language for telecom testing, to create automated tests.

Base price: $100,000. Ixia, Calabasas, CA. 877-367-1912; www.ixiacom.com.

Wavecrest's popular SIA-3000 signal-integrity analyzer, which provides timing analysis and jitter measurements for digital signals, is now available with a built-in, 6-GHz equivalent-time sampling oscilloscope—you don't need a different instrument to perform eye measurements on repetitive or pseudorandom data streams. You can use the SIA-3000 to analyze up to 10 serial data streams. The scope uses a separate analog-to-digital converter for each channel.

While the scope's actual sampling rate is 100 kHz, the equivalent-time sampling rate is 5000 Gsamples/s with a rise time of just 50 ps. You can view signals from clocks and phase-locked loops (PLLs) at speeds up to 6.25 Gbits/s on any channel. In addition, you can develop your own eye masks for precompliance tests.

Price: $49,500. Wavecrest, Eden Prairie, MN. 952-831-0030; www.wavecrest.com.

Aries Electronics now offers versions of its Interposer, Spring Probe, and Microstrip Contact RF test sockets with thermoelectric cooling. The sockets accommodate high-power ball-grid-array (BGA) and chip-scale packages. A conduction-cooling-based design brings the socket in direct contact with a copper heat sink and integrated fan assembly; a built-in thermistor indicates temperature. Sockets measure 63.5x63.5x88.9 mm and can accommodate packages as large as 27x27 mm.

Base price: $5300 for a 484-lead BGA Spring Probe socket. Delivery: 6 weeks. Aries Electronics, Frenchtown, NJ. 908-996-6841; www.arieselec.com .

Testing for EMC compliance requires you to subject your product to numerous forms of interference. The UCS500M/6B simulator can subject your product to burst, surge, voltage dips, power-frequency changes, magnetic fields, simulated power-failures, and ESD.

The simulator produces test waveforms that comply with several of the IEC 61000-4-x standards, including 61000-4-2, which covers ESD, and 61000-4-11, which covers voltage dips, short interruptions, and voltage variations. You can operate the instrument from the front panel or from a computer through the RS-232 or IEEE 488 communications port. The instrument runs under Windows-based software, or you can write your own test procedures.

Price: $20,000. Amplifier Research, Souderton, PA. 215-723-8181; www.amplifiers.com.

Enabling developers to run complex digital-signal-processor (DSP) simulations in minutes instead of hours, Texas Instruments has introduced DSP simulation technology that benchmarks have shown increase simulation speeds up to 21 times. Along with the new simulation technology, TI offers the Analysis Tool Kit for its TMS320C5000 and TMS320C6000 DSP platforms. The kit provides developers with increased application visibility and the opportunity to profile and model full DSP applications.

Part of TI's Code Composer Studio (CCStudio) Integrated Development Environment (IDE), the Analysis Tool Kit includes four new components:

• Cache Analyzer provides a graphical depiction of cache accesses, highlighting cache hit and miss patterns over time. The tool gathers cache-miss data and identifies its source, so the developer can isolate and identify patterns to better organize the code to improve performance.
• Pipeline Stall Analyzer identifies stalls in the pipeline down to the instruction level and presents the information on a single screen that the designer can use to reorder the instruction to eliminate the conflict.
• Code Coverage Analyzer automatically finds conditional statements in code, tracks the path taken through it, and provides results in a single graphical display.
• Multi-Event Function Profiler allows the user to collect data on multiple events and presents it in a single table, saving the developer from having to analyze each event separately.

Fast simulators and the Analysis Tool Kit are available within CCStudio 2.2 for selected C5000 and C6000 processors.

Base price: $3595 for CCStudio with the first-year annual subscription. Analysis Tool Kit is available free for all CCStudio 2.2 registered users. Texas Instruments, Houston, TX. 800-336-5236; www.ti.com/fastsimulationpr .

Because the Ethernet bus lacks the real-time deterministic performance needed for some measurement applications, UEI has introduced the PowerDNA system, which transfers commands and data over Ethernet hardware in a deterministic manner. The PowerDNA system runs a proprietary protocol called DaqBIOS that lets instrument modules take control of the Ethernet bus, ensuring the instruments can respond to commands within guaranteed time limits.

The PowerDNA system consists of a central controller and several measurement modules connected by Ethernet. The central controller resides in a PC or a CompactPCI/PXI chassis and contains two ports, each capable of communicating with 64 daisy-chained measurement modules. The modules, called "I/O cubes," contain a CPU card called a "core module" and an I/O card that provides Ethernet connectivity. The cube can also hold up to six analog or digital I/O cards called "I/O layers" for measurement and control. The I/O-layer cards add analog inputs and outputs, direct-temperature inputs, digital I/O lines, and eight RS-232 serial ports to an I/O cube.

The DaqBIOS protocol achieves its deterministic response in two ways. Under one scheme, each network node (I/O cube) gets a 60-µs time slot, which lets the central controller serve up to 16 nodes within 1 ms. In a variable-timing scheme, the central controller broadcasts frames that tell the nodes which one may use the communications bus and specify the size of the packets the nodes may send. You may connect other devices such as printers to the Ethernet network because the central controller also supports the standard TCP/IP protocols.

Prices: central controller card—$2000; I/O cubes (without I/O layers)—$1195; I/O layers range in price from $320 for eight digital lines to $1995 for 25 temperature inputs. United Electronic Industries, Canton, MA. 781-821-2890; www.ueidaq.com.