Richardson, TX – ASSET® InterTech, the leading supplier of open tools for embedded instrumentation for design validation, test and debug, and PLX Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLXT), the leading global supplier of PCI Express® (PCIe®) switch and bridge silicon, today announced that ASSET’s ScanWorks® platform for embedded instrumentation is supporting the exclusive PLX® visionPAK™ packet generator/system analyzer toolset.

“visionPAK provides unique capabilities embedded in PLX PCIe devices helping users in system bring-up, board level testing and field debug,” said Akber Kazmi, director of marketing at PLX. “ASSET ScanWorks support will enable system manufacturers to use our on-board devices to test other components and interconnects of the system more rigorously with lower cost before they get shipped to the customers.”

PLX’s visionPAK, supported by ASSET’s ScanWorks platform, is an exclusive toolset of diagnostic and monitoring features that are integrated into all PLX PCIe Gen 2 and Gen 3 switches and focused on getting designs to market faster. visionPAK hardware features are offered standard via the PLX software design kit (SDK) and include tools to measure Rx eye-inside the device for validating signal integrity; a function to inject errors to check system behavior; a function to generate packets/traffic to saturate x16 PCIe Gen 2/3, loopback Tx to debug data paths, and the capability for monitoring packet performance.

“When integrated with ScanWorks using an IEEE P1687 approach, PLX’s visionPAK provides printed circuit board (PCB) validation, test and debug functions to enhance the signal integrity and high-speed bus performance on circuit boards to detect manufacturing defects and process variances,” said Tim Caffee, ASSET’s vice president of I/O instrumentation. “PLX has more than 65 percent of the PCIe switch market share, and providing standardized access to their on-chip instrumentation demonstrates a commitment to PCB manufacturing excellence for their customers.”

ScanWorks® – The Embedded Instrumentation Platform

ASSET, through its ScanWorks platform, is applying the experience it has gained from two decades as a leading supplier of boundary-scan test tools to the development of open embedded instrumentation tools. The boundary-scan infrastructure that is embedded into chips and circuit boards is one of several technologies that can form the basis for an embedded instrumentation toolset. In recent years, ASSET has significantly enhanced its ScanWorks® platform beyond boundary-scan test with the addition of other embedded instrumentation technologies, including processor-controlled test (PCT) and tools for Intel® IBIST (Interconnect Built-In Self Test), an embedded instrumentation technology that Intel® and other companies are embedding into next-generation chips and chipsets.