Electrical PCI Express compliance up to 64 GT/s demonstrated
Keysight Technologies has assisted AMD in expediting the testing of electrical compliance for the PCI Express (PCIe) specification for pre-production AMD server CPUs.
By providing early access to beta software, Keysight enabled AMD to develop and test a PCI Express technology-capable server motherboard operating at up to 64 GT/s. The server was shown for the first time at the PCI-SIG Developer Conference June.
With speeds reaching up to 256 GB/s across 16 lanes, PCIe 6.0 is designed to facilitate faster data transfer, reduced latency, and improved energy efficiency. These advancements position it as a crucial enabler for the implementation of AI and the evolution of more advanced and efficient AI applications. The performance enhancement of PCIe 6.0 over PCIe 5.0 signifies a major step forward and is a vital requirement for servers to seamlessly interface with accelerator modules utilised in AI applications, along with next-generation deployments of 802.3dj Ethernet communications.
Keysight provided AMD with early access to its CEM test tools, including its 64 GBaud High-Performance BERT and 59 GHz UXR-Series Oscilloscope, as well as pre-compliance software. These tools enabled AMD to characterise, tune, and validate its server platform using pre-release beta code, thereby helping to ensure its hardware met performance expectations before industry-wide test tools were officially released.
Amit Goel, Corporate Vice President, Server Engineering, AMD, said: “By using Keysight’s PCIe compliance test platform and early access software, AMD has been able to confirm and establish a stable demonstration of electrical compliance up to 64 GT/s. This early validation confirms market readiness for the signal-integrity health and electrical robustness of our forthcoming AMD server CPUs. It reinforces our commitment to delivering reliable, high-speed I/O for next-generation platforms.”
Dr. Joachim Peerlings, Vice President and General Manager, Keysight Network and Data Center Solutions, said: “The progress the industry is making in bringing PCI Express 6.0 technology to market is remarkable. Our close collaboration with AMD has enabled another milestone in high-speed I/O, which is critical to supporting artificial intelligence and networking applications. By providing early access to our PCIe CEM test tools and measurement solutions, we helped AMD validate and optimise its platform, enabling AMD to deliver PCIe solutions capable of 64 GT/s to market faster and drive the next wave of AI and networking innovation.”
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
