N6463A Thunderbolt Transmitter Electrical Performance Validation and Compliance Test Software for Infiniium Oscilloscope

Verify and Debug Your Thunderbolt Designs

The N6463A Thunderbolt electrical test software gives you a fast and easy way to verify and debug your Thunderbolt designs for both silicon validation as well as end products like storage devices or motherboards. The Thunderbolt electrical test software allows you to automatically execute Thunderbolt electrical transmitter tests and displays the results in a flexible report format. In addition to the measurement data, the report provides a margin analysis that shows how closely your device passed or failed each test. The N6463A Thunderbolt electrical test software covers the prescribed test methods and parameters required for Thunderbolt electrical certification testing for all current Thunderbolt specification revisions. This produces results that are consistent with those obtained during official certification at approved test labs and informational testing at plugfests. In addition to automatic setup and execution of the transmitter tests, the N6463A Thunderbolt electrical test software also provides an automatic setup and control of the crosstalk generator source, a required condition for electrical testing during official certification tests.

Features and Benefits

The N6463A Thunderbolt electrical test software offers several features to simplify the validation of your Thunderbolt designs:

– Automated test setup and execution for ease of use

– Testing support for Thunderbolt Interconnect specification revisions 0.6, 0.7 and 0.9

– Fully-automated Device Test Mode control

– Support for simultaneous two-lane testing as well as single or dual port

– Support for SMA cable and test fixture de-embedding to provide more accurate margin estimates

– Includes required Thunderbolt UJ_RJ jitter decomposition test method

– Run tests with live or saved waveforms for easy regression testing if specification requirements change

– Support for user-defined limits and specification-specific limits for all Thunderbolt Interconnect specification revisions

– Automated test report generation and margin analysis

– Add additional custom tests, steps or automation to your application using the N5467A User-Defined Application (UDA) development tool

– Supports automated setup and control of crosstalk generator

Easy Test Definition 

The N6463A Thunderbolt electrical test software extends the ease-of-use advantages of the Keysight Technologies, Inc. Infiniium 90000 X- and Q-Series oscilloscopes to testing Thunderbolt designs. The Keysight automated test engine walks you quickly through the steps required to define, set up, perform, and view the results for the tests. You can select a category of tests all at once or specify individual tests. You can save tests and configurations as project files and recall them later to quickly re-test, run additional tests and review previous test results. You can also quickly verify old test results against new specification requirements using the Saved Waveform option.

Configurability and Guided Connections

The N6463A Thunderbolt electrical test software provides flexibility in your test setup. It guides you to make connections in the proper sequence and connection changes with hookup diagrams when the tests you select require it. 

The Configure Tab provides flexibility in your test setup and oscilloscope settings used during tests. In configuring the tests, advanced users can specify changes to the test configuration to optimize test time versus coverage depending on validation requirements and testing goals.

Reports with Margin Analysis

In addition to providing you with measurement results, The N6463A Thunderbolt electrical test software automates and provides a report format that shows you not only where your product passes or fails but also how close you are to the limits specified for a particular test parameter relative to the specification revision you are testing. You can select the margin test report parameter, which means you can specify the level at which warnings are issued to alert you to electrical tests where your product is operating close to the official test limit defined by the Thunderbolt Interconnect specification.

Automation

You can completely automate execution of your application’s tests and Add-Ins from a separate PC using the included N5452A Remote Interface feature (download free toolkit from www.keysight.com/find/scope-apps-sw). You can even create and execute automation scripts right inside the application using a convenient built-in client. The commands required for each task may be created using a command wizard or from “remote hints” accessible throughout the user interface. 

Using automation, you can accelerate complex testing scenarios and even automate manual tasks such as: 

– Opening projects, executing tests and saving results

– Executing tests repeatedly while changing configurations

– Sending commands to external instruments

– Executing tests out of order

Combine the power of built-in automation and extensibility to transform your application into a complete test suite executive:

– Interact with your device controller to place it into desired states or test modes before test execution.

– Configure additional instruments used in your test suite such as a pattern generator and probe switch matrix.

– Export data generated by your tests and post-process it using your favorite environment, such as MATLAB, Python, LabVIEW, C, C++, Visual Basic etc.

– Sequence or repeat the tests and “Add-In” custom steps execution in any order for complete test coverage of the test plan.