Date: 27/04/2009

LeCroy's PCI Express protocol test card to support I/O Virtualization

With cloud computing taking importance, the system virtualization technologies and the tools to support them are gaining speed and importance. LeCroy has announced it is providing single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) functionality on its PCI Express protocol test card (PTC). LeCroy has recently demonstrated this new added feature in testing with SR-IOV add-in cards as part of Intel's virtual I/O technology showcase.

PIC SIG defined I/O virtualization specifications. I/O virtualization works along with system virtualization technologies to allow multiple Operating Systems (OSs) to work simultaneously in a computer to share I/O bus resources/devices.
I/O virtualization are grouped into three groups of specifications they are,
Address Translation Services (ATS): to provide a set of transactions for PCI Express components to exchange and use translated addresses in support of native I/O Virtualization.
Single Root IOV: this specification provides native I/O Virtualization in existing PCI Express topologies where there is a single root complex.
Multi-Root IOV: this specification builds on the Single Root IOV specification to provide native I/O Virtualization in new topologies (such as blade servers) where multiple root complexes share a PCI Express hierarchy.

Lecroy's Protocol Test Card is enhanced to support testing for SR-IOV Virtualization, Address Translation Services and Alternative Routing ID Interpretation (ARI) Specification. ARI, a key SR-IOV feature, extends the number of simultaneously existing virtual functions to 256, and will significantly increase the capabilities of Root Complex and Switch devices in IOV implementations.


"SR-IOV technology is a key component in building a data center with efficient virtualized I/O," said Jim Pappas, Director of Initiative Marketing for Intel Corporation. "The PCI Express Protocol Test Card from LeCroy will enable SR-IOV developers to insure a higher quality of interoperability and performance to their customers."

"LeCroy is pleased to announce the SR-IOV enhancement to the LeCroy Protocol Test Card," said John Wiedemeier, Product Marketing Manager, LeCroy. "The new SR-IOV capability enables the PTC, in combination with the advanced SR-IOV information display on the Summit™ T2-16 Protocol Analyzer, to allow users to quickly understand communication events in SR-IOV devices so that performance can be optimized."

These cards are immediately available from Lecroy.

Further resources:

To know about Lecroy's product: www.lecroy.com
To learn about PIC-SIG standards: www.picsig.com
To download a white paper on cloud computing: http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/dw/wes/hipods/Cloud_computing_wp_final_8Oct.pdf