Agilent and Symwave Collaboration Enables First-in-Class, High-Quality USB 3.0 Devices

Verifying physical layer device (PHY) performance and compliance to the standard is a critical step to ensure a design will interoperate with other USB 3.0 products. Robust PHY performance can help compensate for poor-quality cables or signal impairments, leading to a better user experience with the end-consumer product.

Agilent's USB 3.0 validation solution is the most comprehensive toolset for USB compliance. To support USB 3.0 PHY silicon testing, Agilent has created a comprehensive test solution for both transmitter and receiver testing that allows design and validation teams to verify specification requirements. Agilent USB testing tools are chosen by test labs and compliance workshops worldwide because of their ease of use, automation and accuracy. Agilent's USB 3.0 toolset will continue this tradition.

Symwave announced the world's first USB 3.0 device at the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference in November 2008. Concurrently, Agilent announced a comprehensive solution for testing SuperSpeed USB 3.0 devices to ensure compliance with the newly published standards. The two companies have since collaborated to enable USB 3.0 technology development and the launch of new SuperSpeed USB products for the personal computing, storage and consumer electronic device markets.

With a data rate of 5.0 Gigabits per second, the performance of SuperSpeed transceivers is critical, said Christopher Thomas, Symwave's chief technology officer. We wanted to ensure that our device would exceed USB 3.0 specification requirements and be a robust product for our customers. Agilent's high-performance test platforms were the ideal solution. We were able to utilize these tools to validate the highest performance USB 3.0 product available today.

We are working closely with developers of SuperSpeed USB technology to ensure our solutions completely meet the needs of engineers testing for USB 3.0 compliance, said Scott Sampl, general manager of Agilent's oscilloscope business. Collaborating with an industry-leading partner like Symwave has provided constructive benefits and has resulted in Agilent SuperSpeed USB 3.0 test products that are second to none.

In addition to Agilent's DSA91304A real-time oscilloscope and the J-BERT N4903A/B high-performance serial BERT, Agilent also offers USB 3.0 test fixtures and advanced design system software for creating and simulating USB 3.0 channels.