N8827A PAM-4 Analysis Software for Infiniium Real-time Oscilloscopes

Electrical signals

• Eye width, eye height, eye skew
• Level amplitude, level noise, level skew
• Bit error ratio and symbol error ratio measurements (Trigger on burst errors and unfold eye to show BER/SER error in PAM-4 waveform)
• Linearity measurements and more

Powerful analysis features

• PAM-4 equalizers (LFE, CTLE) using the N5461A Infiniium serial data equalization software
• Embedding / de-embedding of channels using the N5465A InfiniiSim waveform transformation toolset for Infiniium oscilloscopes
• Jitter and amplitude analysis on JP03 patterns using the N5400A EZJIT Plus jitter analysis software

Flexible, economical

• PAM features integrated directly into the Infiniium graphical user interface (not a separate application)
• Offline analysis on a PC using saved or simulated PAM-4 waveforms running N8900-003 Infiniium Offline analysis software bundle

Compatibility
 

• Infiniium 90000A, V-Series, Z-Series (and discontinued 90000 Q-Series and X-Series) real-time oscilloscopes running firmware revision 5.6 or later

Demand for increased network bandwidth in data centers continues to grow. Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) is a multi-level signaling format that is enabling technology to help address this need. The switch from NRZ to PAM-4 is revolutionary, rather than evolutionary from 100G, presenting many new design and measurement challenges.

The Keysight N8827A PAM-4 analysis software for Infiniium real-time oscilloscopes is designed to accurately and quickly characterize PAM-4 electrical signals described in IEEE 802.3bj Clause 94 and address future PAM measurement needs as outlined in developing standards such as OIF-CEI-56G and IEEE 400G. In addition, the N8827A software tool allows you to perform bit error ratio (BER) and symbol error ratio (SER) for a continuous repeating pattern (such as a PRBS7) using PAM-4 signaling.