UART Protocol Validation Suite & Services

UART Protocol Validation Suite & Services

DATA SHEET
Download Datasheet - UART Protocol Validation Suite Specifications*

Product Details

  • Overview
  • Functional Coverage ​
  • Parametric Coverage
  • Features
  • FAQ
Overview

UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) is an Asynchronous Serial communication protocol. The data is not synchronized with a clock instead the data bits are transmitted with a pre-defined baud rate and appended with synchronization start & stop bits. It uses a two-wire interface (Tx & Rx) to communicate between devices.​

As a part of product validation, it’s important to validate the product’s conformance against the protocol specification to ensure the interoperability of the product. As the complexity of the protocol and product increases, the validation time of the protocol interfaces also increases which in turn reduces the RTM. Performing the protocol conformance testing in the traditional way needs a lot of time and effort.  ​

Soliton’s UART Validation Suite is an off-the-shelf validation tool using NI’s PXI platform, which helps to validate the devices’ compliance with the timing and electrical specifications of the UART protocol. The tool can also validate the devices tolerance to and recovery from a variety of UART faults & exceptions and provides a comprehensive set of reports. Users have claimed that using this automated solution for UART Validation has brought down the test time/ validation time from a few weeks to a couple of days.  ​

Functional Coverage ​
MODES
  • Simplex​
  • Half Duplex​
  • Full Duplex
FUNCTIONAL TESTS
  • Write 1 Byte ​
  • Read 1 Byte ​
  • Write N Bytes ​
  • Read N Bytes ​
  • Report Packet Error Detection​
  • Baud Rate Error Detection​
PROTOCOL FEATURES
  • Configure Parity​
  • Start Bit​
  • Stop bit​
  • MSB / LSB Bit Ordering​
  • MSB / LSB Byte Ordering​
  • Generate Break Condition and Reset
FAULT TESTS
  • Frame Error – Missing Start/Stop Bit​
  • Parity Error – Send Invalid Parity Bit​
  • Add extra bits ​
  • Skip bits​
  • Induce Glitch/Spike​
  • Send invalid Data ​
Parametric Coverage
Timing Parameters​
  • Baud Rate – 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600 and 115200 bits/s​
  • Idle time between two UART packets​
Electrical IO Parameters
  • VIH High-Level Input Voltage 
Features
Features of UART Protocol Validation
  • ISO 9001 Certified Product​
  • Simple, Flexible, Modular, and Light Bench Setup
  • Easy to use UART Protocol Exerciser and Debugger to perform various UART transactions with controllable timings/voltage levels​
  • Protocol compliance testing with zero coding​
  • Comprehensive reporting feature to report the test pass/fail reports​
  • Reproduce failure cases in a few clicks​
  • Easy to build and test custom device-specific tests​
  • Automation Capability (DLLs/APIs) from external programming environment/automation frameworks like LabVIEW, C#, Python, TestStand, etc​​
  • Leverage Soliton’s experience in protocol validation and debugging​
FAQ
What kind of engagement models are offered for UART Validation

Users can purchase a license of the UART Validation Suite and do the validation in-house

How is this product different from existing Protocol Exercisers, Debugger or Analyzers?

This product is mainly used for performing functional and electrical compliance validation of the UART devices (post-silicon validation) whereas the other existing protocol exercisers, debuggers, or analyzers are used for performing basic functional tests during the device bring up​

Can't I build a home-grown solution instead?​

While this is certainly an option, we expect that it will take a highly experienced automation engineer between 3-6 months to create a first version of a similar tool. To create a robust and flexible tool takes experience, and we have been improving this tool over the last 3 years since its release. We believe it is worth the cost to skip the learning curve and avail of our comprehensive report or validation suite.​

What else can I do with NI's PXI chassis/modules?​

The PXIe-657x module is a general-purpose programmable pattern generator and acquisition device with deep memory. It can be used for other protocol validation tools from us. Also, it can be programmed using LabVIEW or other programming languages to emulate any synchronous digital protocol. NI’s PXI chassis supports high bandwidth and synchronization-friendly control and reads back from a huge variety of digital, analog, and special-purpose modules in a compact form factor.​

What is the interposer board referenced in the system diagram?​

The Protocol Validation Suite requires custom external circuitry for signal conditioning. Each purchase comes with a complimentary interposer board, which is a separate PCB designed and delivered by us.

Which oscilloscope models are supported?

The Protocol Validation Suite supports any NI scope by default. The tool has a flexible architecture that allows the support of other oscilloscope models. We can help you in building the oscilloscope plugin for one of your oscilloscopes​

What type of documentation and training will be available for each solution?​

User manuals, Getting started guides, and tutorial videos are available for each solution and can be easily accessed from within the product. Additionally, we will provide short live training sessions upon request. ​

Can the tool be used for out-of-the-box validation?

Yes, The tool comes without of box test scripts which can be used for validation after entering the device-specific details​

Why was UART Master & UART Slave terms are renamed to UART Controller & UART-Target?​

As a part of terminology replacement efforts, we have deprecated the Master-Slave terminologies and replaced them with Controller-Target terminologies in our documents. When the MIPI Organization finalizes a different terminology, we will be updated new terminology ​

The high level architecture of the Soliton UART Validation Suite based on NI’s PXIe 657x Platform​
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The high level architecture of the Soliton UART Validation Suite based on NI’s PXIe 657x Platform​
Representation of the system setup used for SPI Slave Validation​
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Representation of the system setup used for SPI Slave Validation​
The high level architecture of the Soliton UART Validation Suite based on NI’s PXIe 657x Platform​
Representation of the system setup used for SPI Slave Validation​
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Technical Documentation

Soliton’s UART Validation Suite is an off-the-shelf validation tool using NI’s PXI platform, which helps to validate the devices’ compliance with the timing and electrical specifications of the UART protocol. It contains the below components.

  • NI PXIe 657x – Digital Pattern Generation Card with the PXIe Chassis setup 
  • Soliton PVS Interposer Board ​
  • Oscilloscope – For performing voltage measurements ​
  • Soliton UART Validation Suite Software compatible with Windows OS (Win 10) ​
For more details, download the datasheet
Download Datasheet - UART Protocol Validation Suite Specifications*

Hardware

Soliton’s UART Validation suite is based on the NI – PXI Platform and the NI part configuration lists the hardware required to perform the validation​

The solution also needs a custom Interposer Board for signal conditioning purposes.

The DUT can be connected through the Berg Connector​
The DUT can be connected through the Berg Connector​

Support & Training

For any queries, contact us at [email protected]. We will respond within 1 Business day

*Please note that this product is in the alpha stage.

 

TYPICAL USER BASE FOR UART VALIDATION SUITE

 

  • Design Engineers, Test Engineers, Post Silicon Validation Engineers, Engineering Managers, Validation Managers, Lab Managers, etc from the Semiconductor Industry
  • Post Silicon validation of Chips with UART interface​
  • Semiconductor Chip Manufacturers making UART Devices with a Two-wire interface​

 

OTHER PROTOCOL VALIDATION SERVICES OFFERED BY SOLITON

 

I2C Protocol Validation   I3C Protocol Validation   SPI Protocol Validation   SPMI Protocol Validation

 

RFFE Protocol Validation   SMBus Protocol Validation   PMBus Protocol Validation