TRADE NEWS: Agilent Technologies Introduces Industry-First High-Performance Serial BERT with Integrated Tunable Loop Bandwidth Clock Data Recovery.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- New Measurement Capability with Compliance Settings Enables Signal Analysis of Clockless Devices

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) today announced the industry's first built-in, tunable loop bandwidth Clock Data Recovery (CDR) option with a library of compliant CDR settings for its award-winning J-BERT N4903A high-performance serial Bit Error Ratio Tester (BERT). The CDR covers today's serial gigabit bus standards and enables engineers in characterization and validation labs to perform signal analysis of clockless devices on a BERT.

As gigabit serial bus technologies are getting faster, test margins for devices continue to shrink. Measurement uncertainty caused by non-compliant measurements or degraded signals can lead to devices failing to meet specification, causing rework and loss of revenue.

Agilent has addressed this issue by integrating a new CDR into its J-BERT analyzers, thus reducing the need for extra cabling and connections, which cause signal degradation. At data rates above 10 Gb/s, for example, extra cabling can cause up to 5 percent of a unit interval extra jitter. The new built-in tunable loop bandwidth CDR in the N4903A helps engineers in characterization and validation labs get precise jitter budget results for devices with clockless architecture. The adjustable loop bandwidth also allows engineers to adapt the CDR to proprietary devices and simulate the receiver's jitter filtering. This enables the measurement of the true jitter budget of the device as it is designed to be used.

Engineers in validation labs will save time and effort by using J-BERT's new library of compliant CDR settings for standards, including PCI Express(R), Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA), Fibre Channel, fully buffered DIMM, Common Electrical Interface (CEI), 10 Gb Ethernet and XFI/XFP. Following the future-proof upgradeable option concept, all J-BERTs can be upgraded to the new tunable loop bandwidth CDR.

"Many of today's high-speed serial bus architectures are clockless," said Siegfried Gross, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Digital Verification Solutions division. "With the integration of the new tunable loop bandwidth CDR into J-BERT, Agilent continues to demonstrate its leadership in high-speed physical layer test instruments."

The Agilent J-BERT N4903A high-performance serial BERT with the new built-in tunable loop bandwidth CDR provides the following benefits:

--More design margin, since the built-in CDR reduces extra cabling and connection for minimized signal degradation.

--Accurate jitter budget characterization with an adjustable loop bandwidth to adapt the CDR to proprietary devices.

--Compliant jitter budget test with an extensive library of standard-compliant CDR settings.

--Extensive gigabit standards coverage, with a full data rate range of the CDR from 1 Gb/s to 12.5 Gb/s.

--Upgradeability from existing N4903A BERT platform, protecting customer investment.

The Agilent J-BERT N4903A has been nominated for several product and technology awards:

--  2006 DesignVision Finalist Award -- Test and Measurement
        Equipment
          www.designcon.com/2006/exhibition/designvision_awards.html

    --  "Monthly Technology Award," Fiberoptic Technology Magazine,
        December 2005
          www.agilent.com/find/fot-award

    --  2006 Best in Test Awards, Test & Measurement World Magazine
        --Honorable Mention
          www.agilent.com/find/tm-award

    --  2005 EDN Innovation Award, Test & Measurement -- Application
        Specific Category
          www.agilent.com/find/edn-award

More information about the Agilent J-BERT N4903A is available at www.agilent.com/find/n4903. Photos of the product are available at www.agilent.com/find/n4903_images.

U.S. Pricing and Availability

The tunable CDR upgrade (option N4903AU-UTR) for the Agilent J-BERT N4903A Serial BERT is expected to be available May 1, 2006, priced at $26,500. Prices for the Agilent J-BERT N4903A start at $120,000 for the 7 Gb/s version and $160,000 for the 12.5 Gb/s version.

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) is the world's premier measurement company and a technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company's 20,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $5.1 billion in fiscal 2005. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com.

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