SATracer/Trainer 3G

• Performance - Parallel ATA does not have scalability to support several more speed doublings, and it is nearing its performance capacity. By contrast, Serial ATA defines a roadmap starting at 1.5 gigabits per second (equivalent to a data rate of 150 MB/s) up to 6Gigabits per second.
• Lower Voltage - Parallel ATA's 5-volt signaling requirement will be increasingly difficult to meet as the industry continues to reduce chip core voltages. Serial ATA is better aligned with future manufacturing processes. It reduces signaling voltages to approximately 250 millivolts (1/4 volt).
• Pin Count - Currently, the parallel ATA interface has 26 signal pins going into the interface chip. Serial ATA uses only 4 signal pins, improving the pin efficiency and accommodating a highly integrated chip implementation.
• Improved Cabling - Parallel ATA bulky ribbon cables contain 40-pin header connector. Serial ATA introduces thin, flexible cabling scheme that offers longer cables and improved airflow within the chassis.
• Software Compatible - Serial ATA is compatible at the register level with parallel ATA. This means Serial ATA requires no changes to existing software and operating systems in order to function, and it provides backward compatibility with existing operating environments.
• SAS Compatibility - A significant feature offered by Serial ATA is the expectation that SATA will be form-factor compatibility with Serial Attached SCSI. SATA drives will plug directly into Serial Attached SCSI connectors and if supported in the system, will transparently operate as a SATA device. This allows systems to be deployed that can use either Serial Attached SCSI drives, for their high performance or SATA drives that will provide a lower-cost-per-megabyte storage platform.

• Serial ATA is a full duplex protocol. There is a continuous flow of signals from each device moving down the bus. The device and host are transmitting (TX) and receiving (RX) at the same time.
• Bidirectional traffic pattern eliminates the need for bus negotiation overhead
• Data characters vs Primitives - Primitives are the simplest elements within the Serial ATA protocol. Primitives are 32-bit DWORDs used to initiate control of the serial line functions (X_RDY, CONT, etc...). In addition to these "handshaking" and flow control signals, Primitives are also used to delimit or "frame" user data.
• Frame Information Structure (FIS) - A frame is an indivisible unit of information exchanged between a host and device. A frame consists of a SOF primitive, a Frame Information Structure (FIS), a CRC calculated over the contents of the FIS, and an EOF primitive. A FIS is the user payload of a frame; a frame is a group of Dwords that convey information between host and device as described previously.

• Serial ATA Working Group
• SearchStorage Serial ATA Technology
• T13 Technical Committee

SATracer/Trainer 3G is LeCroy’s next generation protocol analyzer that provides fast, efficient and accurate debug, test and verification of Serial ATA semiconductors, devices, and systems. The SATracer/Trainer 3G builds upon the strengths of LeCroy’s original SATracer/Trainer with a mature feature set driven by real-world test challenges and extensive customer feedback.

Effective Serial ATA analysis requires non-intrusive recording at both 1.5 and 3 Gbps line-rate with native support for spread spectrum clocked (SSC) signals. LeCroy's 4th Generation SATA analyzer is fully compatible with Serial ATA I and II and is built from the ground up to support multilane SATA traffic. The SATracer 3G is available with 1, 2 or 4 recording channels and can also be "cascaded" with additional LeCroy analyzers including SAS, SATA and Fibre Channel platforms, to provide a synchronized display of multiple protocol traffic. SATracer 3G displays traffic using the CATC Trace Analysis software, which provides innovative features and unsurpassed ease of use. This includes LeCroy's flexible Frame Tracker and Link Tracker display that make it easier to understand upstream and downstream SATA traffic.

FrameTracker provides a condensed view of frame level events on each channel and can be synchronized with the Link Tracker display

The SATracer 3G is a hardware plug-in module that installs into the CATC Protocol Analyzer System (CATC 10K). The CATC 10K platform is LeCroy’s high speed serial data analyzer for storage and is intelligently designed to support other technologies by plugging different protocol-specific modules into the chassis.

The LeCroy SATA protocol analyzer module plug-in utilizes production level transceiver silicon designed to be fully compatible with Serial ATA-II. It triggers and records the critical out-of-band (OOB) signaling, supports SSC and auto-detects SATA-II negotiated link speeds. A Hi-Speed USB port is used to upload Serial ATA traffic to the host PC.

The SATracer and Trainer modules can be used selectively for analysis only, for traffic generation only, or perform both analysis and traffic generation at the same time. When configured with the SATrainer option, the system can transmit a single link of 1.5 or 3Gbps traffic while providing 1 or 2 recording channels. The two link SATracer 3G is a popular choice for monitoring traffic moving in and out of a port multiplier board. The two link system is easily upgraded in the field to support 4 link analysis by replacing the Exerciser module with a second 2 port analyzer plug-in.

The heart of the CATC platform is the revolutionary BusEngine™. This state-of-the-art protocol processor core incorporates a real-time recording engine and configurable tools to effectively monitor Serial ATA traffic at full line rate. All BusEngine logic is fully field-upgradeable. It can selectively monitor traffic on specific channels or with from a specific SATA port number. It can start recording when event counters or timers exceed specified thresholds and it's the only system that can perform long term recording by "spooling" captured data to local disk storage.

The LeCroy protocol analyzer platform not only supports today's technologies, but also the technologies of the future. With plug-in modules available for Fibre Channel, InfiniBand 4X and PCI-Express, the CATC platform can address the most important protocols on the computing horizon. The SATracer 3G system can also be upgraded with software to support Serial Attached SCSI (SAS).

The CATC platform also allows you to combine stand-alone analyzers together to capture high-speed traffic across the same or different communication protocols. For example, SAS, SATA and Fibre Channel analyzers can be cascaded together to cross-trigger, capture and display traffic from multiple heterogeneous protocols. Ideal for validation of multi-protocol bridge components, traffic from multiple analyzers can be displayed synchronized to a common clock and with full search and reporting capabilities.

For efficient development of Serial ATA systems, an analyzer has to let you extract useful information from a crowded stream of traffic, and accurately identify and selectively record what interests you most. The SATA protocol analyzer provides real-time hardware triggering on the critical components of Serial ATA including out-of-band signals, errors, commands, and primitives.

The SATracer 3G features the LeCroy BusEngine core. This real-time recording engine can intelligently monitor and cooperatively trigger across 4 fully loaded SATA 3Gbps links. It discards idles and packs redundant symbols; it can filter out SYNC and ALIGN primitives; or truncate data payloads to maximize recording memory. By removing redundant primitives or data payloads from the trace, you can focus your analysis on commands, status and flow control fields.

SATracer 3G supports up to 256 levels of trigger logic with up to six trigger states per level. The triggering and filtering options are channel independent and can record different fields based on the traffic detected on the individual links. This powerful triggering and filtering model is particularly useful for trapping intermittent problems that only occur during overnight testing.

You can configure the depth of the recording memory up to 2 Gbytes and determine where in the recording the trigger is located. Filtering strategies can significantly extend the recording memory and with "spool-to-disk" recording, the system can actually capture time stamped trace data for I/O operations that occur over several hours or even days. When using spooled recording, SATracer allows you to selectively view portions of the captured data in segments. Intended for tracking errors or events that occur infrequently, spooling provides unprecedented flexibility for capturing real problems. A full complement of bus usage graphs are also available which makes spooled recording useful for characterizing performance over an extended period.

Using SATracer software to analyze trace data makes it easy to identify problems and explain behavior. SATracer leverages the CATC Trace display system, which trains your eye to understand more information faster. Colors and graphics are used to represent trace elements in the context of the Serial ATA protocol. Sequences are shown on separate rows with every field labeled and color-coded. Errors are identified and highlighted in red. The negotiated link rate and out-of-band signaling are clearly labeled.

LeCroy pioneered the "heirarchical" approach to showing high level events which can be collapsed and expanded to reveal FIS, status fields, data payloads, and primitives. SATracer 3G provides exceptional "drill down" to byte level detail including raw 8b10b symbols. The Link Tracker display allows you to see DWORD level data streams in a table view. It uses a common reference clock to time synchronize traffic moving upstream and downstream on a full-duplex SAS link. It can display Packet fields, 10B HEX, Scrambled or unscrambled DWORDs. For SASTracer systems equipped with multiple channels, it displays additional columns showing DWORD traffic chronologically across all links. This level of detail is critical to debugging command queuing because it provides precise timing context for analyzing state transitions within the SATA host controller. Frame Tracker moves one level higher by summarizing and displaying transport level events in a similar table format. Together, these two displays preserve the physical orientation of the recorded data, which makes it easier to visualize what's occurring on multiple SATA links.

The SATracer display detects and alerts you to every potential violation at all levels of the protocol layering, from running disparity to the proper sequencing of the handshaking. The proper formation of each command is checked for validity and compliance to the specification, including the recalculation and checking of CRCs. Vendor unique FIS's are also supported allowing trigger and decode of custom FIS types for developers implementing proprietary commands. Throughout the trace viewer, informative tool-tips give complete definition of each field's contents. In many cases, the CATC Trace replaces the need to use a specification to understand the protocol.

SATracer's exceptional post-processing features include traffic summaries and histograms that report on throughput, command completion and error rates. Powerful search options allow you to find any combination of FIS type, errors, or primitives within a trace. SATracer provides several ways to hide elements of the trace that are irrelevant to the analysis including idles, primitives and FISs. These custom record and display settings can all be saved to a configuration file and shared within a development team.

SATracer 3G delivers the most comprehensive feature set for developers focused on maximizing the performance potential of Serial ATA-II. It includes decodes for the SATA-II Extensions including command queuing and port multiplier specifications.

SATracer provides many mechanisms to measure and report on Serial ATA traffic. For each sequence in the CATC Trace, you can see an absolute time-stamp and delta time between sequences on the same link. You can specify the location of the timestamp and whether it's displayed in hex or decimal format.

A Timing Calculator generates additional I/O metrics for any portion of a trace. For example, select any two points in a recording and automatically calculate the timing delta, throughput, payload and other statistics between two FIS or commands. SATracer's Bus Usage analysis window includes graphical reports like Average Time to Data, which provides a snapshot of read efficiency.

Today's high bandwidth serial links require more automated analysis capabilities. With the Traffic Summary window, developers can evaluate throughput, timing, error rates and other statistical data at a glance - or navigate to individual fields. For example, by choosing a FIS, such as DMA Activate, you can automatically jump through each occurrence of that FIS Type on the trace. This traffic summary can be printed, saved to text or emailed with a single keystroke.

The perfect combination of power and portability, SATracer meets airline carry-on regulations and adapts to any lab environment. The SATrainerexerciser option combined with LeCroy's protocol analysis software makes this the only "all-in-one" tool for SATA test and validation.