Genoa Technology's USB Expert Simplifies Analysis of Universal Serial Bus Design Problems.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 1999--

USB Expert Monitors, Captures USB Standard and Class-Specific Traffic;

Ethernet Connection Provides Fast, Efficient Debugging 

and Fault Isolation

Genoa Technology Inc. has announced a new product to analyze and isolate Universal Serial Bus protocol errors, the USB Expert.

This new analyzer detects and reports nearly 1,500 different error types. Users may set the display so various colors represent different error types, making it easy to recognize and identify problems. The USB Expert decodes HUB, HID, Communication and Printer Class requests, in addition to USB standard requests.

The system is composed of software and two hardware components: a USB Probe that connects to the USB Bus and a USB Data Unit with 10baseT connection to the host. The Ethernet connection provides remote access over an IP network to troubleshoot field issues efficiently.

The USB Expert saves development time and costs by quickly identifying protocol problems at transfer, transaction, event, data and signal layers. Any layer can be displayed, and time correlations between layers are preserved, making it easy to see relationships when debugging. External triggers allow data to be recorded when user-defined events occur.

The Transfer Layer Analyzer displays the highest level view of USB traffic: sequences of transactions. Application software developers can use this view to determine if transfers from the software to the operating system are being properly transmitted. Extensive filters allow viewing of selected aspects of the transfer to simplify problem isolation.

The Transaction Layer Analyzer displays multiple events from a single transaction in a highly readable way. It allows the entire transaction to be analyzed for conformance to the USB specification. If a required part of the transaction is missing or outside of timing requirements, the error is detected and described to the user.

The Event Layer Analyzer displays all recorded USB events. Each event is displayed as a single line and can be color-coded for easy viewing. The details shown include the synch byte, PID, Data and CRC. If a packet contains an error, the bit stream that can be decoded is displayed, providing the user with the greatest level of detail.

The Data Layer Analyzer presents the data from each transaction and sorts it by user-selectable "pipes." Users may then see, all in one place, the data sent from a specific address and endpoint. All layers are linked, so it is easy to move back to the other layers to see the details of the packets used for transport.

The Signal Layer Analyzer provides an interface with logic analyzer "look and feel" for RxD and SE0. This interface will be familiar to hardware developers performing timing analysis on jitter or analyzing bit stuffing errors. Two cursors, "X" and "O", are available to calculate time between any two packets, signals or events.

In post-capture analysis, the USB Expert has extensive display filtering options to pinpoint specific protocol problems. Comprehensive time measurements can be made for event traffic to accurately assess performance. The USB Expert includes sample traffic files containing various protocol violations.

The Genoa Technology USB Expert runs in a Windows 95, 98 or NT 4.0 environment, and is available now at $6,000.

About Genoa Technology

Genoa Technology, located in Moorpark, Calif., develops, manufactures and markets testing solutions for the printer, imaging, telephony and local PC connectivity markets. Founded in 1986, the company has developed a solid reputation in the printer and fax testing markets. More recently, Genoa has expanded into developing testing solutions for image acquisition, Computer Telephony Integration and local connectivity.

For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.gentech.com or call 805/531-9030.