Tektronix Arbitrary Waveform Generator Key to SATA Testing at Testronic Laboratories

AWG7000 Produces High-Speed 6 Gbit/s Real-World Waveforms; Essential Capability For Leading-Edge Standards Test House

BEAVERTON, Ore., Nov. 6 -- Tektronix, Inc. (NYSE:TEK) , a leading worldwide provider of test, measurement and monitoring instrumentation, announced that Testronic Labs, a leading test and certification center, has selected the Tektronix AWG7000 arbitrary waveform generator for test services based on high-speed serial bus standards. The AWG7000 is an integral part of the Tektronix test bench for the leading serial data standard technologies including HDMI, SATA, PCI-Express, Ethernet, DisplayPort, and others.

With the growth in high-speed communications technologies in the new digital world, there is an increasing need to test products to ensure their compliance and compatibility with industry standards. Testronic Labs, via its Belgian operation (formerly known as PMTC), provides leading-edge test services for these technologies, and the Tektronix AWG7000 provides state-of-the-art support for its activities.

"SATA III has pushed the serial bus bit rate to 6 Gbit/s and the Tektronix AWG7000 is the only generator on the market that can produce these high-speed real-life waveforms with programmed imperfections at the required speed," said Johan Craeybeckx, Chief Technology Officer, Testronic Labs. "The capability of the AWG7000 to provide these signals makes it a vital piece of equipment that allows us to expand our current range of activities and to deploy new high-speed services."

"Testronic Labs is the first test laboratory in Europe to be able to certify products as SATA compatible and we are delighted that they chose our AWG7000 to achieve this capability," said Mike Higashi, Vice President, Signal Sources Product Line, Tektronix. "Tektronix is committed to delivering industry-leading serial data test solutions with unequaled measurement accuracy and test flexibility that enable test houses like Testronic and their customers to achieve certification with the latest SATA compliance test requirements."

The most important use for the AWG7000 currently at Testronic Labs is for receiver testing in SATA links. In this application, the AWG7000 is programmed to generate test signals that simulate various transmitted signal conditions. The results at the receiver end -- depicting the signal quality after traversing the interconnect channel from the transmitter -- are then observed on a Tektronix high-performance real-time oscilloscope.

Features of the AWG7000 make it ideally suited to SATA testing. In particular, by using direct synthesis techniques the AWG7000 can directly generate ideal or impaired signals in a repeatable way by avoiding the need for multiple signal sources and mixing of digital signals with analog impairments. At these speeds, timing margins are small, eye diagrams and signal fidelity are critical, and minor design and layout problems can have great impact while remaining difficult to trace. Interpreting rigorous jitter and compliance specifications can require a time-consuming learning curve, so an instrument like the AWG7000 becomes essential since it makes these measurements quickly and easily.

The AWG7000 is an integral part of a complete Tektronix test bench for SATA measurement needs. The Tektronix SATA test bench includes DSA70000 real time oscilloscopes with the bandwidth to handle the fastest SATA data rates, matching probes, automated measurement software, and signal sources for receiver and out-of-band measurements.

About Tektronix AWG7000

The Tektronix AWG7000 is the only generator on the market that can produce these high-speed real-life waveforms with imperfections including noise, jitter, pre- and de-emphasis and multi-level signaling at up to 6 Gbit/s.

About Testronic Labs

Testronic Labs, established in 1998, is the worldwide leading Quality Assurance provider of choice for the digital media and entertainment industry. Services cover the film, computer game and telecoms industry along with e-learning and interactive software as well as hardware and a range of certification standards including USB, S-ATA and DLNA. Testronic Labs' skilled teams provide testing of any content across any medium to any end device. Based at Burbank, CA, Pinewood Studios & central London UK, Diepenbeek, Belgium and Warsaw, Poland, Testronic Laboratories are the only global Quality Assurance company operating across the entire digital media industry. Visit http://www.testroniclabs.com/ for more information.

About Tektronix

Tektronix is a leading supplier of test, measurement, and monitoring products, solutions and services for the communications, computer, and semiconductor industries -- as well as military/aerospace, consumer electronics, education and a broad range of other industries worldwide. With 60 years of experience, Tektronix enables its customers to design, build, deploy, and manage next-generation global communications networks, computing and advanced technologies. Headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, Tektronix has operations in 19 countries worldwide. Tektronix' Web address is http://www.tektronix.com/.

Tektronix is a registered trademark of Tektronix, Inc. All other trade names referenced are the service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.