Simulation-measurement challenge solved by test bench

30th June 2014

Keysight Technologies (formerly Agilent)

Mick Elliott

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Datasheet

Semiconductor companies developing DDR controller IP, those developing DRAM chips and DIMMs, and OEMs integrating the controller and DIMM into a system using PCB technology can now use Agilent Technologies’ Advanced Systems DDR4 Compliance Test Bench for a complete workflow from simulation of a candidate to measurement of the finished prototype.

The compliance test bench is available as an add-on to Advanced Design System 2-14.1 software from Agilent EEsof EDA. The new test bench uses simulation to ensure that a candidate design yields a fabricated prototype compliant to the voltage and timing specifications of the JEDEC DDR4 standard. Previous tools for this task made it difficult to correlate simulation compliance with hardware prototype and test bench compliance.

The ADS DDR4 Compliance Test Bench rectifies this situation by providing a customizable test harness in which to simulate customers’ intellectual property. The test bench also provides a post-processing scripting capability, known as Waveform Bridge, which exports simulated waveforms to the same compliance application used with Agilent Infiniium oscilloscopes.

The new version of the Infiniium software works on live data from an oscilloscope and on stored data (offline mode). Additionally, it works on the PC embedded in the oscilloscope and on an ordinary Windows PC (remote mode). Using this new offline/remote mode, engineers can run the compliance app side-by-side with ADS.

The ADS DDR4 Compliance Test Bench provides a seamless solution from simulation to hardware prototype test—all from a single company—avoiding the challenges of working with disparate solutions from different vendors.

The DDR Compliance Test Bench will be available in August as an add-on to the presently shipping ADS 2014.01 platform.