SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 12, 2012 – Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced Agilent’s next-generation U4421A MIPI D-PHY exerciser and analyzer for mobile computing applications. This new instrument gives R&D and manufacturing engineers deep insight into the Camera Serial Interface (CSI-2) and Display Serial Interface (DSI) of MIPI D-PHY designs.
“Testing and validating implementation of MIPI Alliance’s specification is key for the industry,” said Joel Huloux, chairman of the MIPI Alliance. “We are pleased to see Agilent delivering new tools for analyzing camera and display MIPI Alliance interfaces.”
Mobile designers are adding multiple high-definition cameras and displays, and are beginning to integrate 3-D technology. This increasing demand for bandwidth has driven the expansion of the D-PHY specification to include four-lane, 1.5 Gbs options. U4421A offers up to 16 GB of stimulus and analysis memory – 2 to 5 orders of magnitude more than competing options – allowing designers to capture or simulate long sequences of high-definition traffic.
More significantly, the U4421A offers “raw mode,” a new feature that lets designers see the states that underlie the protocol. These states can be presented as a waveform or list, providing insight into why a packet isn’t being interpreted correctly.
“Our customers tell us that they are under tremendous pressure to release their newest mobile computing designs,” said Ross Nelson, general manager of Agilent’s Digital Debug Solutions. “A tool like raw mode helps them go beyond the what of protocol and into the why. This helps them solve turn-on problems much faster, allowing them to spend more time developing and optimizing features.”
The U4421A also offers image insertion and extraction software. The need to manage increased image traffic is the driving force behind mobile computing busses, and these packages simplify end-to-end image analysis. It’s even possible to use an internal loopback path to the analyzer to verify the traffic being sent to the target system.
The D-PHY exerciser option makes it possible to validate designs before components are available. Users can also change lane skew, signal voltages and slew rate, data rate, and protocol timing to test designs under a wide variety of conditions. This helps engineers optimize designs and make them more robust while minimizing power consumption.
The modular AXIe blade form allows multiple busses to be exercised or analyzed simultaneously. Multiple CSI or DSI busses can be time-correlated with PCIe, DDR, HDMI or a generic high-speed logic analyzer module. Modularity extends to the instrument configuration. A U4421A blade can be configured as an exerciser, analyzer or both. For cost effectiveness, users can purchase as many lanes and as much memory, protocol support, and image analysis software as they need today, and upgrade in the future.
The U4421A MIPI D-PHY exerciser and analyzer completes Agilent’s product offering for D-PHY, CSI and DSI. Agilent offers an entire solution for D-PHY from physical TX and RX test through protocol test.
Additional information is available at www.agilent.com/find/DPHY_analyzer. A high-resolution screen image of Agilent’s U44421A MIPI D-PHY exerciser/analyzer is available atwww.agilent.com/find/U4421A_images.
U.S. Pricing and Availability
The U44421A MIPI D-PHY exerciser/analyzer is available for order now, with shipments estimated in September 2012. Prices start at approximately $35,000.
About the MIPI Alliance
The MIPI Alliance is a nonprofit corporation that operates as an open membership organization. All companies in the mobile device industry are encouraged to join, including semiconductor companies, software vendors, IP providers, peripheral manufacturers, test labs and end product OEMs. Today, nearly 200 member companies actively participate in the alliance, developing interface specifications which drive consistency in processor and peripheral interfaces, promoting reuse and compatibility in mobile devices.
About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is the world’s premier measurement company and a technology leader in chemical analysis, life sciences, electronics and communications. The company’s 18,700 employees serve customers in more than 100 countries. Agilent had net revenues of $6.6 billion in fiscal 2011. Information about Agilent is available at www.agilent.com.
