Industry Support for PCI-X: Fourth Generation of PCI/PCI-X Bus Analyzers from VMETRO Delivers Fast, Reliable Debugging and Testing

VMETRO brings over 15 years of experience in high-performance, board-level product manufacturing with the introduction of its three new bus analyzer and exerciser products, all of which are based on the widely accepted PCI/PCI-X bus standard. The newest members of VMETRO's fourth-generation PCI analyzers are the PBT-615B, PBT-615CX and PBT-615DX.

The PBT-615CX and PBT-615DX are advanced 32/64-bit PCI/PCI-X bus analyzers, protocol checkers, and exercisers developed to provide system integrators, OEM manufacturers, and software and hardware design engineers with the highest level of performance and accuracy when designing next-generation systems. The PBT-615B is an advanced 32/64-bit PCI/PCI-X analyzer only that supports up to 100-MHz analysis. All three analyzers automatically detect and reconfigure for either PCI or PCI-X. Each also features decoding and ease-of-use features designed especially for PCI-X debugging.

For detailed hardware analysis, VMETRO offers the PTIMBAT500-PB as an add-on module for the PBT-615 series. The PTIMBAT500-PB is an optional daughter card that contains a 64 channel, 500-MHz timing analyzer with a 16Msample trace buffer.

"By developing these PCI/PCI-X bus analyzers and add-on modules, we have set a critical standard for software, hardware, and design engineers who demand fast and reliable debugging and testing operations," said Leif Laerum, Vice President of Hardware Products at VMETRO. "This is VMETRO's fourth generation of PCI analyzers designed to make high-level board design easy and effective and ensure that PCI-X compliance standards are met. PCI/PCI-X has a tremendous reputation in the industry, and a long and promising future."

PCI-X increases performance, eliminates I/O bottleneck

Able to, one, provide up to four times the speed of existing PCI bus technology, and, two, eliminate I/O bottlenecks by allowing simultaneous bus transactions, PCI-X provides the highest level of performance for demanding applications. The 64-bit architecture runs at speeds up to 133 MHz, delivering burst transfer rates of up to 1 GByte/s. Designers can choose whether to put four 66-MHz slots behind each PCI bridge or one 133-MHz slot behind each bridge. This flexibility is critical to meeting specific performance requirements of systems with advanced peripheral devices, multiple PCI-X buses running at different speeds, and maximum slot capacity.

PCI-X is a compatible extension to the existing PCI bus, which is used in almost every PC today, as well as in new applications like routers, NICs and embedded systems. As a fully backward-compatible technology, PCI-X allows significant enhancements, while protecting the customer's investment in current PCI adapter technology.

VMETRO

VMETRO is present in the US with the wholly owned subsidiary VMETRO, Inc. in Houston, TX. In addition, VMETRO has subsidiaries in France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom, and Norway, called VSYSTEMS. VMETRO provides board-level products for high-performance, real-time embedded systems, based on open architectures such as PCI/PCI-X, VMEbus, RACE++/RACEway, and Fibre Channel.

About the PCI-SIG

Formed in 1992, the PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) is the organization that develops and manages what has become one of the most successful I/O bus standards ever, the PCI bus specification. Through wide industry support and active developer participation, the PCI bus specification has been a well-maintained, open and non-proprietary solution that is scalable to the needs of today's industry, while also retaining legacy compatibility. In addition to the advancement of the PCI specification, the PCI-SIG educates the industry on the latest developments of the PCI interconnect through technical seminars and via its Compliance Workshops (Plugfests), which provide forums for testing the interoperability of the many PCI-related systems and software in the market.

The PCI-SIG has continued to develop successful extensions to the PCI bus, such as PCI-X and Mini PCI, and remains committed to furthering and advancing the specification. By adding new features and increased functionality, the PCI-SIG is driving the evolution of one of the most successful standards ever created for the computing industry.