SI-FiTM PCIe Gen5 Interposers
SI-Fi™ PCIe Gen5 Interposers
SerialTek’s PCIe Gen5 Slot (AIC) Interposers with SI-Fi technology are specially designed test adapters that are physically placed in between the PCIe slot and a PCIe endpoint to intercept and relay a copy of the high-speed signaling and discrete data lines to the Kodiak PCIe Analysis system in real-time. Together with the Kodiak™, SerialTek’s Gen5 (32.0 GT/s) PCI Express® (PCIe®) interposers with SI-Fi™ allow users to monitor an unprecedented variety of PCIe bus traffic with unparalleled power and ease.
Product Description
Enabled by SerialTek’s proprietary SI-Fi™ technology, users can save hours over legacy approaches requiring interposer calibration.
This technology improves critical test coverage by providing high signal integrity, even over changing conditions, such as link training (LTSSM), Power Management, Hot Plug, Reset, and other tests where the physical link/lane characteristics may change.
SI-Fi™ PCIe Gen5 Interposers continue SerialTek’s TCO approach. With the focus on signal integrity, QSFP-DD based cables connect each interposer to the analyzer. These cables are readily available and rated greater than 32GHz, resulting in uncompromised SI at all PCIe transfer rates. All sideband signals are passed through the interposer from Root Complex (Host) to Controller (Device), and all are made available to the analyzer for trigger, decode, and analysis.
“I’ve been using protocol analyzers for 31 years and PCIe analyzers and interposers extensively for the past 5 years. We use them for important assignments that affect revenue and customer satisfaction,” said John Wehman, Principal Applications Engineer at Phison Technology. “With other analyzers I have had to abandon my testing many times, because I could not find a good quality signal lock. SerialTek’s Kodiak analyzer and SI-Fi interposers have changed all that. I have 100% confidence in Kodiak’s ability to achieve lock and give me the trace I need to do my job. Kudos to Ellisys and SerialTek for creating not only an electrically reliable platform, but the actual mechanical hardware itself is beautiful.”
SerialTek interposers use SI-Fi™, a proprietary probing technology which eliminates the need for hours-long calibration sequences, preserves the original signal quality of the link, and enables real-world PCIe link training debug. With support for OCP 3.0 NIC and EDSFF form factors, these modular, calibration-free interposers are compatible with PCIe 5.0, PCIe 6.0 (PAM4 modulation at 64 GT/s), and SerialTek’s future PCIe 6.0 protocol analyzers.
The new interposers also feature the industry’s first integrated power analysis functionality, powered by Quarch Technology Ltd., providing very high-accuracy measurements of voltage, current, and power. This integration not only eliminates the need for bulky current probes and oscilloscopes or DC power analyzers, but also correlates these measurements to the PCIe traffic in the trace capture.
EDSFF Interposer
SerialTek’s EDSFF interposer is mechanically modular and easily converts from E1.S to E1.L to E3.S form factors. The included EDSFF host adapters are easy to change and plug into a host system. High-quality cabling (instead of lossy PCB material) from the interposer to the storage enclosure preserves signal quality while adding flexibility, saving customers money, and providing for safe placement of the device under test (DUT) on a bench or in a test rack. SerialTek’s EDSFF Interposer supports all relevant sidebands, including SMBus (e.g., NVMe-MI) from the host or from external / third-party injection or generation tools. SerialTek’s PCIe Gen5 EDSFF Interposers with SI-Fi technology are specially designed test adapters that are physically placed in between the EDSFF port and an E1.x or E3.x EDSFF target to intercept and relay a copy of the high-speed signaling and discrete data lines to the Kodiak PCIe Analysis system in real-time.
M.2 Interposer
M.2 is a specification supporting specifically keyed modules of different lengths that facilitate the addition or expansion of functions via a small form factor. The PCIe M.2 form factor is typically used for PCIe adaptation and small form factor NVMe SSD’s. SerialTek’s M.2 interposer supports all relevant keys, link-widths, and sidebands, including SMBus (e.g., NVMe-MI) from the host or from external / third-party injection or generation tools. SerialTek’s PCIe Gen5 M.2 Interposers with SI-Fi technology are specially designed test adapters that are physically placed in between the M.2 port and an M.2 endpoint to intercept and relay a copy of the high-speed signaling and discrete data lines to the Kodiak PCIe Analysis system in real-time.
U.2 / U.3 Interposer
SerialTek’s U.2 and U.3 interposers support standard and extended length storage bays, and all relevant sidebands, including SMBus (e.g., NVMe-MI) from the host or from external / third-party injection or generation tools. SerialTek’s PCIe Gen5 U.2 and U.3 Interposers with SI-Fi technology are specially designed test adapters that are physically placed in between the U.2/U.3 port and a U.2/U.3 target to intercept and relay a copy of the high-speed signaling and discrete data lines to the Kodiak PCIe Analysis system in real-time.
Cable Interposers
PCIe External Cabling provides an electrically efficient channel to connect external or internal PCIe components directly to a root port, daughter card, backplane, adapter, or other PCIe based ports. Cable interposers support MCIO, HD MiniSAS (SFF-8674) and SlimSAS (SFF-8654) form factors and supports all relevant sidebands, including SMBus (e.g., NVMe-MI) from the host or from external / third-party injection or generation tools. SerialTek’s PCIe Cable Interposers with SI-Fi technology are specially designed test adapters that are physically placed in between the MCIO, HD MiniSAS (SFF-8674) or SlimSAS (SFF-8654) host port and its endpoint to intercept and relay a copy of the high-speed signaling and discrete data lines to the Kodiak PCIe Analysis system in real-time.
The MCIO and SlimSAS Adapter Sets are design to allow link widths greater than x4 and with the modular interposer concept, x4, x8 and x16 Slot (AIC) Interposers are converted to support MCIO or SlimSAS cabling connection.
| PCIe Gen5 SI-Fi Interposers | |
|---|---|
| PCIe Gen5 x16 slot interposer | PEI-G5-16-AIC |
| PCIe Gen5 x8 slot interposer | PEI-G5-08-AIC |
| PCIe Gen5 x4 slot interposer | PEI-G5-04-SLS |
| PCIe x16 OCP 3.0 NIC/EDSFF Interposer with Integrated Quarch Power Analysis | PEI-G5-16-OCPQ |
| PCIe x8 EDSFF E3 Interposer with Integrated Quarch Power Analysis | PEI-G5-08-EDSQ |
| PCIe Gen5 x4 Premium Package. Includes SI-Fi Interposer POD and smart interface adapters for x4 AIC, EDSFF (E1.S, E1.L, E3.S, E3.L), M.2, U2, U3 | PEI-G5-04-PRE |
| PCIe Gen5 EDSFF (E1.S, E1.L, E3.S, E3.L) | PEI-G5-04-EDS |
| PCIe Gen5 M.2 interposer | PEI-G5-04-M2S |
| PCIe Gen5 U2 interposer | PEI-G5-04-U2E |
| PCIe Gen5 U3 interposer | PEI-G5-04-U3E |
| PCIe Gen5 MCIO Cable interposer | PEI-G5-04-MCS |
| PCIe Gen4 Slim-SAS Cable Interposer | PEI-G5-04-SCS |
| PCIe Gen4 HD MiniSAS Cable Interposer | PEI-G5-04-HDS |
| PCIe Gen5 MCIO to x16 AIC Interposer Adapter Set | PEI-G5-16-MCIA |
| PCIe Gen5 SlimSAS to x16 AIC Interposer Adapter Set | PEI-G5-16-SSIA |