Multifunction protocol tester is USB 3.0 ready

The tester is available in three configurations: analyser, generator or duo. The hardware unit is capable of acting either as a protocol analyser or packet generator, depending on the firmware configuration.

In the analyser configuration, the EX260 provides real-time monitoring, hard-disk data streaming, in-depth class decoding, comprehensive traffic statistics, and powerful triggering and filtering. Analysis is based on the USB Explorer Pro software, which is well-proven for validating device enumeration, solving communication issues, detecting interoperability problems and optimising performance.

In the generator configuration, the EX260 complements protocol analysis by emulating USB devices and hosts, and by testing extreme situations such as 'corner cases' and recovery mechanisms. Reproducible traffic, timing and error scenarios can be created with a powerful scripting environment, and captured traffic can be replayed to test a particular situation.

The EX260 generator stimulates the device under test by sending packets, waiting for responses, and sending appropriate answers computed from the received responses. This is achieved using a specialised processor that is able to react fast enough to match the very tight timings required by the enhanced USB 3.0 specification.

The generator supports the industry's first inline error injection feature, allowing the user to insert programmed errors between a host and device to determine the impact of transmission errors. This setup is proficient at stress testing and verifying protocol behaviour under rare error conditions.

Also included with the generator is the Ellisys USB pre-compliance automated testing software, which controls the generator and an optional analyser to automatically verify the compliance of devices against the USB specification and other class specifications such as HID and Mass Storage.

Based on the same advanced test methodology developed by Ellisys for WiMedia Alliance compliance testing events, the USB pre-compliance testing software interacts with a device under test by executing a suite of tests to generate a compliance report. Any detected issues can be easily debugged using the protocol analysis software.

In the duo configuration, the EX 260 becomes a flexible bundle of two full-featured units that can be used as one analyser and one generator, two protocol analysers or two packet generators depending, on the customer's testing requirements. This configuration is more convenient than having both functions on the same unit, allowing better sharing of resources and more test flexibility in a multi-user environment.

The EX260 is based on a new hardware platform with 1 Gbyte of memory and a high-performance specialised processor created by Ellisys. Designed with USB 3.0 in mind, this powerful new hardware platform can process the full 5 Gbit/s throughput of the new 'Super-Speed' mode planned for the USB 3.0 specification. Firmware upgrades to cope with the evolving 3.0 specification will be provided free of charge and a low-cost hardware upgrade module will be available as soon as the I/O specification is fixed.