Agilent/Keysight U4301A

The Keysight U4301A is a modular PCIe protocol analyzer blade designed for high-speed capture and analysis of PCI Express traffic. It integrates into AXIe chassis systems and delivers packet-level decoding, transactional insights, and performance metrics across PCIe Gen 1, 2, and 3 links. The module supports lane widths from x1 to x16 and combines hardware probing with advanced analysis software to isolate protocol issues, training failures, and throughput bottlenecks in PCIe-based systems.

– Technical Specifications

• Protocol Support: PCIe Generation 1, 2, and 3
• Lane Speeds: 2.5 GT/s (Gen 1), 5.0 GT/s (Gen 2), 8.0 GT/s (Gen 3)
• Lane Widths: x1, x2, x4, x8, and x16 configurations
• Capture Buffer: 4 GB per module (up to 8 GB for x16 links in specific configurations)
• Probing Technology: Equalization Snoop Probe (ESP) for high-speed accuracy
• Probe Options: Mid-bus probes, solid slot interposer probes (U4321A), flying lead solder-down probes (U4324A)

– Key Features

• Transactional Decoding: NVMe and PCIe transactional analysis with directional and queue-based flow organization
• Performance Analysis: Real data throughput calculations and response-time measurements
• LTSSM Overview: Link Training & Status State Machine visibility for physical layer diagnostics and training sequence troubleshooting
• Lane View: Per-lane packet display with highlight capability
• Packet Viewer: Flexible color coding by packet type or direction; navigation viewer for rapid message access
• State-Based Triggering: Four-state sequence triggering with error detection on illegal sync characters, loss of framing, and illegal blocks
• Trigger I/O: External synchronization with complementary test instruments

– Compatibility & Integration

The U4301A installs as a modular blade in AXIe chassis systems, including the Keysight M9502A (2-slot) and M9505A (5-slot) platforms. Optional compatibility with Agilent AMP chassis is available. The flexible architecture supports configuration scaling for smaller test deployments.