Wavecrest Announces Finalist Position for IEC DesignVision 2005 Award

Business Wire, Jan 11, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS -- New SIA 3600D recognized for adding new dimension to electronic design industry and to society as a whole

Wavecrest, the leading developer of signal integrity analysis solutions for engineers in design, characterization and production environments announced today that their new SIA 3600D Signal Integrity Analysis solution has been named a finalist for the International Engineering Consortium's (IEC) DesignVision 2005 award in the Test and Measurement category. The SIA 3600D is being recognized for its innovation, uniqueness, market impact, customer benefits and value to society.

The SIA 3600D provides timing and amplitude compliance measurements with extensive diagnostics for PCI Express, Serial ATA, Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, Infiniband, XAUI, clocks and other applications. As a number of these applications transition to multi-Gigabit serial data links, significant design and system challenges are introduced with signal integrity becoming the most critical test for determining overall performance and interoperability. A distinct advantage of the Wavecrest SIA 3600D over traditional test and measurement solutions is its ability to provide focused diagnostics that quickly identify the causes of signal integrity problems. This enables users to shorten their design and debug cycle.

The SIA 3600D also saves time and money through more efficient and comprehensive test methodologies. Problems can be detected and debugged faster than alternative methods, ensuring quicker time to market and fewer board spins. Measurements are accurate and repeatable, resulting in industry confidence that products are compliant. Because the SIA is optimized for fast speed of test, it can be used in design and production, providing correlation throughout the semiconductor design cycle.

The SIA 3600D has most recently been packaged for compliance testing to the new PCI Express 1.1 specification. This solution includes a dedicated PCI Express software tool that tests all physical layer jitter parameters with immediate pass/fail confirmation on one screen. Amplitude parameters such as rise-time, fall-time, and eye opening can also be tested. The 3600D PCI Express solution offers a built-in programmable hardware clock recovery that provides the required high-pass function for testing jitter. The PCI Express 1.1 Specification updated the requirements in the 1.0a Specification to ensure more accuracy during jitter testing.

"It is a great honor to be recognized by the IEC as a finalist for the first-ever DesignVision Award," states Dennis Leisz, Wavecrest President and CEO. "The committee's main criteria of innovation, uniqueness, market impact and customer benefit represent the true value of our equipment. Our goal has always been to help engineers save time and money while getting their products to market faster."

About the International Engineering Consortium

The International Engineering Consortium (IEC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to catalyzing progress in the electronic design and semiconductor industries and in their university communities. Since 1944, the Consortium has provided high quality educational opportunities for industry professionals, academics and students. To support a worldwide need, the IEC has developed free online, web-based tutorials. The IEC conducts industry-university programs that have substantial impact on curricula. It also conducts research and develops publications, conferences and technological exhibits addressing major opportunities and challengers of the information age. More than 70 leading, high technology universities are currently affiliated with the Consortium. Industry is represented through substantial corporate support and the involvement of many thousands of executives, managers and professionals.

In keeping with its 60-year mission of bringing the highest quality and most innovative forms of education to the industry, the IEC presents the DesignVision Awards to recognize leading-edge products and services in the electronic design and semiconductor industries.

About Wavecrest

Within design, characterization and production facilities worldwide, engineers trust Wavecrest solutions to meet their toughest challenges in signal integrity analysis. Wavecrest signal integrity solutions are optimized for clock and datacom applications in both lab and ATE environments. For more information, please visit www.wavecrest.com.