Conquest

LeCroy has developed six generations of its industry leading USB protocol verification system since the introduction of USB in 1995. Each successive generation of the LeCroy USB analyzer family has built upon the previous knowledge and expertise. Today, LeCroy offers a broad range of USB test systems with unprecedented functionality, accuracy and user friendliness. The enormous cost of discovering problems after a product is released far outweighs the investment in LeCroy's de-facto standard USB analysis tools. Their use improves the speed and efficiency of the debug, test and verification for USB semiconductor, device, and software vendors. Analyzers or bus "sniffers" also play an essential role in avoiding costly interoperability problems by allowing developers to verify compliance with the USB specification.

Consistent with the growing popularity of digital media, the USB-IF announced USB 3.0 in late 2007 targeting 10X the current USB bandwidth by utilizing two additional high-speed differential pairs for "SuperSpeed" transfer mode. The USB 3.0 specification was released in late 2008 and commercial products began shipping in late 2009. LeCroy has pioneered the development of verifications systems for this new technology. The only company that offers a complete line of USB 3.0 test solutions covering transmitter test to protocol test, and every step in between, LeCroy helps developers achieve their goals of performance, quality, reliability and time-to-market for SuperSpeed technology.

USB, or Universal Serial Bus, is a connectivity standard that enables computer peripherals and consumer electronics to be connected to a computer without reconfiguring the system or opening the computer box to install interface cards. The USB 1.0 specification was introduced in January 1996. The original USB 1.0 specification had a data transfer rate of 12 Mbit/s The first widely used version of USB was 1.1, which was released in September 1998. It provided 12 Mbps data rate for higher-speed devices such as disk drives, and a lower 1.5 Mbps rate for low bandwidth devices such as joysticks. USB 2.0 specification was released in April 2000 and was ratified by the USB-IF at the end of 2001 to develop a higher data transfer rate, with the resulting specification achieving 480 Mbit/s

USB today provides a fast, bi-directional, low-cost, serial interface that offers easy connectivity to PCs. A hallmark for USB operation has been the ability for the host to automatically recognize devices as they are attached and install the appropriate drivers. With features such as backward compatibility with previous devices and hot "plug-ability", USB has become the de-facto standard interface for various consumer and PC peripheral devices. The USB standard allows up to 127 devices connected to a Host System. USB designates low, full, high-speed connectivity between devices compatible with the 2.0 specification. Most full speed devices include lower bandwidth mice, keyboards, printers, and joysticks. The use of high speed USB has exploded with the rapid growth in digital media in the consumer electronics market including media players, digital cameras, external storage and smart phones.

SuperSpeed USB is designator for links operating at the 5 GHz frequency and compatible with the USB 3.0 specification. SuperSpeed USB provides a high performance connection topology for applications that utilize larger files or require higher bandwidth. SuperSpeed USB is backward compatible with USB 2.0, resulting in a seamless transition process for the end user. SuperSpeed USB offers a compelling opportunity for digital imaging and media device vendors to migrate their designs to higher performance USB 3.0 capable interface.

NEC/Renesas was the first chip vendor to introduce host controllers for USB 3.0 (5/18/2009). The first motherboards featuring USB 3.0 ports from Asus and Gigabyte followed in late 2009. In the first half of 2010, dozens of SuperSpeed devices began shipping as vendors rushed to deliver solutions using the 5Gbps signaling speed of USB 3.0. Expect mass adoption into high-bandwidth applications in late 2010.

From its emergence in 1995 as a low-cost connection interface for keyboards and mice, USB has steadily expanded its presence in computing and consumer electronics to become the most popular peripheral interconnect in history. USB continues to be dominant for the following reasons:

• Mature, proven technology
• Backward-compatible and low cost
• Easy plug and play operation
• Data transfer speeds suitable for a variety of applications

As evidenced by USB popularity, several extensions of the technology have been introduced to try and capitalize on its installed base/ popularity. An example of this extension, which is supported and approved by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), is USB On-The-Go (OTG). Designed to allow portable computing devices, such as cell phones and digital cameras, the ability to connect to other USB devices as either a host or peripheral, OTG promises improved interoperability for an enormous number of USB enabled devices.

In addition, there are now dozens of USB device classes addressing everything from health care systems to isochronous video applications. Mass storage remains one of the most popular USB applications as consumers have embraced all types of digital media. The T10 committee has now finalized USB Attached SCSI (UAS) protocol which enables several significant improvements over legacy mass storage protocols including command queuing and streamed IO. Of particular interest is the new battery charging specification which provides a standard mechanism allowing devices to draw current in excess of the USB specification when connected to wall chargers or fast charging host controllers. In addition to the traditional data interchange application, the battery charging specification has solidified USB's dominant role as the interface of choice in the portable electronics market.

USB was initially introduced as a host to peripheral interconnect with the goal of putting most of the intelligence on the host-side. The OTG specification added an optional peer-to-peer capability to devices but had limited adoption to date. So the vast majority of USB devices typically fall into 2 categories:

• Hosts
  • PCs, Macs and laptops
• Peripherals
  • All devices designed to attach to a host (examples)

The role of the host controller (plus software) is to provide a uniform view of IO systems for all applications software. For the USB IO subsystem in particular, the host manages the dynamic attach and detach of peripherals. It automatically performs the enumeration stage of device initialization which involves communicating with the peripheral to discover the identity of a device driver that it should load, if not already loaded. It also provides device descriptor information that drivers can use enable specific features on the device. Peripherals add functionality to the host system or may be standalone embedded operation. When operating as a USB device, peripherals act are slaves that obey a defined protocol. They must react to requests sent from the host. It's largely the role of PC software to manage device power without user interaction to minimize overall power consumption. The USB 3.0 specification redefines power management to occur at the hardware level with multiple power states designed to reduce power usage across the IO system.

• USB Implementer's Forum
• Intel
• Microsoft

The Catalyst Conquest™ USB Protocol Analyzer System provides comprehensive USB analysis features at an extraordinary price point. Designed for easy setup with time-saving features like predefined trigger settings, the Conquest is equally suited for both first-time and advanced users.

The Conquest trace display provides full decoding of the logical USB transfers with expandable headers allowing easy drill-down to the packet layer. Comprehensive USB device level decoding makes it easy to understand transactions occurring at the software level.

Thoroughly field tested, this ultra reliable analyzer platform offers 128MB recording memory which can be extended for long recording sessions with real-time event filtering. Even more important, the ability to trigger on specific events of interest is essential to efficiently debug and test USB devices and software. Hardware based triggering and filtering means there’s no need to compromise with the Conquest series solution.

The Conquest Series leads the industry in affordable tools for comprehensive USB 2.0 test and analysis. Starting with the $1899 standard model, the Conquest platform provides loss-less USB 2.0 event capture with precision that can not be matched by software-based test tools.

The Conquest systems include the Catalyst Trace display which provides both sequential packet views and a logical display of USB Transfers. Using collapsible headers, the Catalyst software groups all packets and transactions that are part of a single transfer. Smart on screen filtering removes redundant events and simplify analysis tasks.

• Protocol error detection
• Hardware event triggering
• Transaction/packet/event search and filter functions
• Payload data report with associated data distribution chart
• Statistics on packets, events, transactions, transfers, errors, and performance
• Quick data pattern search
• Save as text, NRZI, or standard format
• Upper-level protocol decodes and custom protocol editor interface
• Available with 128MB of capture memory

Feature	Conquest Standard	Conquest Advanced	Conquest Pro	Conquest Pro  Exerciser
Low Speed (1.5 Mb/s) and Full Speed (12 Mb/s)	•	•	•	•
High Speed (480 Mb/s)	•	•	•	•
Trace Memory Size	128 MB	128 MB	394 MB	394 MB
Upload to Host via USB 2.0 or LAN	•	•	•	•
Global & Raw Bit View	•	•	•	•
View Hex, Decimal or Binary	•	•	•	•
Search on Errors	•	•	•	•
Search within Data Payload	•	•	•	•
Export Text / ASCII / Binary	•	•	•	•
Snapshot Capture	•	•	•	•
Upper-level USB Class Decodes	•	•	•	•
User-defined Decodes	•	•	•	•
Single-level Event Triggering (Easy mode)	•	•	•	•
Trigger on Protocol Errors	•	•	•	•
Trigger on Setup / In / Out / Data / Ping	•	•	•	•
Statistical Reports		•	•	•
Multi-level Event Triggering (Advanced mode)		•	•	•
Trigger on Split Setup Transaction		•	•	•
Trigger on Split Bulk In/Out Transaction		•	•	•
Trigger on Split Interrupt In/Out Transaction		•	•	•
Trigger on Split Isoch In/Out Transaction		•	•	•
Filter In / Out specific Address / Endpoints		•	•	•
Trigger on Data Pattern and Length			•	•
Trigger on Vbus & Operating Current			•	•
Event Counters			•	•
Event Timers			•	•
Slow-clock Capability			•	•
Auto Run (multiple trace capture)			•	•
Auto detect Speed			•	•
Performance Analyzer (Easy \  Adv. Option)			•	•
OTG Analysis			•	•
Timing Analysis Display			•	•
Real Time statistics & throughput			•	•
DC Compliance measurement			•	•
Exerciser Graphical User Interface (GUI)				•
Traffic Generation / Host emulation				•
Simultaneous Transmit and Record				•
Find Device VID / PID				•
Device emulation				•
OTG Device Emulation				•

Isolating specific protocol events with real time triggering is essential to resolving intermittent problems. With Easy Mode, the Conquest Standard model can trigger on errors or individual PIDs. Alternate approaches - such as spooling large amounts of traffic to disk – result in huge files that are difficult to analyze and debug. Choose the Conquest Advanced model to trigger on a specific sequence of events. This makes it possible to repeatedly capture unique traffic conditions. The standard system can be upgraded to support advanced triggering.

The Conquest Series provides 15 protocol error triggers with auto-detection of an additional 22 (post-capture) protocol errors. Unlike software analysis tools, the ability to identify & pinpoint error conditions as they occur saves debug time. The Conquest system can also be set to ignore specific errors to optimize workflow.

Completely non-intrusive, the Conquest offers timing resolution to 16.67ns. The Conquest trace includes a persistent timing calculator that provides one-click measurements between packets. By default, every trace automatically displays idle time or delta between packets.

Tedious analysis tasks can be simplified by optimizing the display. Post-capture filtering makes it easy to show just the relevant transactions. Other display options include:

• Smart On-Screen filtering to hide redundant events
• Compact View to increase viewing area
• Display data in Hexadecimal, Binary or ASCII
• Hide or unhide columns
• Change colors, fonts and bit order

 

Comprehensive USB Device class decoding is included in the Advanced Conquest model. Link to complete list. This allows users to see upper-level mapped protocol events within the trace eliminating the tedious process of manually decoding device specific commands.

Captured traffic can be saved to various formats, such as binary, text, and NRZI, as well as in Trace view format. An extensive array of USB class decodes can be user-edited with Conquest’s Advanced Script Language (ASL) editor. The ASL editor can also be used to create custom or proprietary decodes.

For detailed analysis, the Data Report shows transactions in raw binary or hex for a specific range of packets or for a specific USB endpoint device. Payloads can also be displayed in ASCII along with the offsets. This alternate view can be cut, pasted, saved and provides a simple display of raw packet data.

Statistical reports are generated for every trace and summarize protocol events at a glance. These traffic summaries allow users to instantly navigate to individual events including Control Transfers, Errors or NAKs.

The Conquest series provides all the critical analysis features needed to debug complex protocol issues. Search, reports, timing calculations, upper level decodes make Conquest a complete solution for USB test and analysis. If exerciser capability is required, the Conquest includes a trade-up path to the Conquest Pro with exerciser (link) allowing users to integrate a flexible traffic generation capability into the test plan. Now there’s no reason to compromise as the Conquest Series puts comprehensive USB analysis tools within everyone’s reach.