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STX Series, Serial ATA/Serial Attached SCSI

Analyzer, Exerciser, Device Emulator, Host Emulator

Setting new Standards in Storage & Networking

Catalyst continues its tradition of Setting new Standards in providing the Storage & Networking industry its most integrated all-in-one test & analysis system for SATA and SAS - the industry’s only “Total Solution” SAS/SATA development tools.

Available Models: STX-131, STX-231, STX-431, STX-431IB, STX-460

Serial ATA (SATA) and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Products

Catalyst’s STX Series, the SAS Master and SATA Master, are highly integrated, compact and advanced test & analysis systems, designed to accommodate a high degree of configurability across protocols, speeds, and user requirements. The STX Series provides functionality for SATA 1.0, SATA II, and SAS, including protocol analysis, host emulation, target emulation and performance monitoring functions, all in a single, lightweight and portable design.

Three basic platforms are provided, the STX-460, STX-431, STX-231 and STX-131. The STX-460 is a four-port analyzer that supports SAS and SATA data rates up to 6 Gb/s. The STX-431 is a four-port analyzer unit that supports data rates to 3 Gb/s with optional host and device emulation capabilities, and the STX-231 is a compact two-port analyzer unit that supports data rates to 3 Gb/s with optional host and device emulation capabilities and the STX-131 is a single port analyzer that is designed for field service engineers. The STX-431IB version provides an alternative front-panel 4X port connection (SFF-8470).

All platforms fully support either SATA alone or both SAS & SATA. Control interface connections include 10/100 Ethernet and high-speed USB connections, located at the rear of the units. A convenient disk drive auxiliary power supply is provided as an integrated feature, located on the side of the platforms. External Triggers in/out are also provided for easy access on the unit front panel.

SAS/SATA Analyzers

The STX Series provides analyzer functionality for both SATA and SAS protocols, in configurations up to four ports (four initiator ports and four target ports). The STX is placed between two communicating system components and provides capture, trigger, performance monitor, an intuitive capture display, and protocol error detection functions, and includes cross-port triggering and time-correlated multi-port captures. For SAS applications, full capture/trigger/display support is provided for SSP, SMP, and STP protocols. For SATA, full support is provided for both ATA and ATAPI command protocols.

Easy capture and trigger setups allow users to select various predefined protocol terms, events, and bus conditions to quickly run the analyzer and view the capture. Advanced triggering allows various states to be defined while at each state the user may define if, else-if, timer, event counter and a conditional jump to any state.

Analyzer Features and Controls

Protocol error detection
Multi-state event triggering
De-scramble options
Precise pre- and post-filtering
Multi-port, multi-speed capability
Event counters
Data Pattern Triggers
Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC) Support
Find device utility
Dual mode capture/trigger interfaces (Easy and Advanced)

Initiator Emulators

The STX Series provides integrated initiator emulation for both SAS and SATA. High level commands can be easily defined and sent to target devices through a series of convenient pull-down menus, eliminating the need to resort to low-level programming. All traffic on the bus, including traffic generated by the STX and returned traffic from the device under test, is captured and displayed in the intuitive Catalyst trace format. Various error injection capabilities allow for full characterization of target devices and related error handling capabilities. Looping, iteration, and a wealth of conditional statements provide for precise control of the emulator scripting routines. Link layer exchanges, link initialization using Out of Band (OOB) signaling, handshaking, and retry conditions are handled automatically, allowing test files to be generated quickly and easily.

Initiator Emulator Features & Controls

Convenient drop-down menus for command selection
Conditional logic for control of initiator sequence
Control of ALIGN transmission period
Primitive response timeout settings
User-defined data blocks for write operations
Task attribute selections
Error injection capabilities
Concurrent operation with analyzer

Target Emulators

The STX Series provides integrated target emulation for both SAS and SATA. The target emulator simulates the behavior of a SAS or SATA device, including normal and abnormal behaviors. The emulator can be configured for most mode page settings, capacities, and other critical parameters, such as payload size, block size, ALIGN transmission time, and access time. Error conditions can be emulated for response frames, data frames, and XFER RDY frames. SAS commands supported include SSP and SMP.

Target Emulator Features & Controls

Definable mode page settings
Support for SSP and SMP commands
Full R_RDY control for buffer starvation
Access time control
Pre-designated error responses
Control of ALIGN transmission period

Multi-Speed/Multi-Protocol

The STX Series is uniquely designed to support both SATA and SAS protocols at 1.5Gb/s and 3.0Gb/s line rates, including mixed rates on different ports. Adding the device and initiator capabilities, performance analysis, and pattern generator serves to make the STX the most complete SAS/SATA solution available on the market today.

Performance Analysis

The STX Series provides a live “finger-on-the-pulse” graphical indication of various bus performance activities. A comprehensive display of link statistics can be selected for analysis, enabling the user to identify performance bottlenecks and implement corrective action. Performance statistics can be recorded and played back in real-time or step-by-step. Rates, counts, ratios, including instantaneous or cumulative values can be specified for screen updates at a user-specified time interval ranging from a few milliseconds to several minutes. Statistics available include bus utilization, data throughput, various raw counts, command completion rates, transmission efficiencies, and more.

Pattern Generation

The STX Series provides a pattern generator utility, which allows bit-level control over data sent out on the wire. The pattern generator is a standard feature, provided on all STX models. Test patterns are generated through simple text files. Link data can be specified in K/D, Hex, or text formats. Link speed and scrambling functions can be controlled by the user, allowing the capability to generate both compliant and non-compliant bit streams. Several sample files are provided in the STX software for both SATA and SAS applications.

Advanced Triggering

The STX application software provides two modes for control of the capture (filter) and trigger sequences. In the Easy Mode, an extensive list of pre-defined triggers and filters are provided for quick and simple execution of traffic captures. This mode is suitable for most common tasks. For more complex tasks, Catalyst provides an Advanced Mode interface, which gives the user a powerful, programmatic approach to controlling the capture/trigger process. This mode provides 24 sequencer states, including timers, counters, and IF, ELSE-IF, and GO-TO conditional logic. A graphical depiction of the sequencer logic is provided as well.

Intuitive Capture Display

Captured data is displayed in a time-stamped, Catalyst Trace™ view, showing an expandable/collapsible structure of application, command, and FIS/transport information, as well as a detailed depiction of link layer and primitive operations. Alternatively, the capture may be viewed in an intuitive listing format, where link activity is displayed vertically, by port. A statistics utility extensively summarizes all captured traffic, protocol errors, and also includes detailed performance information and exports to text and Excel. A data report summarizes all payload data captured in a convenient format, and includes search, copy, and alternative formatting features (byte length display, Hex/ASCII views).

Wide-Port SAS

The STX-431 Series provides full analyzer support for wide-port SAS implementations. The STX-431IB is especially suited for these implementations, with an integrated wide-port connector interface.

Variable TX Vout

Each output of the STX transmitter, analyzer repeater and exerciser, has the option to set the Vout to one of two different amplitudes, ~600mv or ~1100mv.

LAN/WAN ability

In addition to the USB High-Speed control interface, STX users can opt to connect to the STX hardware through a 10/100 Ethernet port, allowing for LAN/WAN access and control of STX operation. The user can specify an IP address for connection, or can elect to use a DHCP addressing setup.

Expandability

STX series models are designed to be expandable, by stacking and interconnecting units to support port widths beyond 4-Wide.

STX-131 ONE-Port SATA/SAS Protocol Analysis System

Provides comprehensive trigger, filter, display, and decode functions. Includes real-time performance monitor, statistical analysis, protocol error detection, pattern generation and integrated power connector for device testing. Front panel indications for OOB in Progress, Link Established, Speed Indicator, Errors, and Trigger. Ethernet and USB 2.0 control interfaces. See picture.

The STX-131 BASE may be factory-configured in one-port base configurations, as follows:

SATA 1.5 & 3.0 Gb/s Analyzer
SATA 1.5 & 3.0 Gb/s, SAS 1.5 & 3.0 Gb/s Analyzer

STX-231 TWO-Port SATA/SAS Protocol Analysis System

The STX-231 BASE may be factory-configured in one-port or two-port base configurations, as follows:

SATA 1.5 Gb/s Analyzer
SATA 1.5 & 3.0 Gb/s Analyzer
SATA 1.5 & 3.0 Gb/s, SAS 1.5 & 3.0 Gb/s Analyzer

STX-231 BASE configurations can be factory-configured or field-upgraded with optional features:

SATA Host Exerciser (Emulates Host Initiator)
SATA Target Emulator (Emulates SATA Device)
SAS Host Exerciser (Emulates Host Initiator) *Includes SATA Host Exerciser
SAS Target Emulator (Emulates SAS Device) *Includes SATA Target Emulator

STX-431 FOUR-Port SATA/SAS Protocol Analysis System

The STX-431 BASE may be factory-configured in four-port base configurations, as follows:

SATA 1.5 Gb/s Analyzer
SATA 1.5 & 3.0 Gb/s Analyzer
SATA 1.5 & 3.0 Gb/s, SAS 1.5 & 3.0 Gb/s Analyzer

STX-431 BASE configurations can be factory-configured or field-upgraded with optional features:

SATA Host Exerciser (Emulates Host Initiator)
SATA Target Emulator (Emulates SATA Device)
SAS Host Exerciser (Emulates Host Initiator) *Includes SATA Host Exerciser
SAS Target Emulator (Emulates SAS Device) *Includes SATA Target Emulator

STX-431IB

The STX-431IB contains the same feature sets and upgrade options as the STX-431. The STX-431IB provides an alternative front-panel 4X port connection. See picture.

STX-460 FOUR-Port SATA/SAS Protocol Analysis System

The STX-460 BASE may be factory-configured in four-port configurations, as follows:

SATA 1.5, 3.0 & 6.0 Gb/s Analyzer
SATA 1.5, 3.0 & 6.0 Gb/s, SAS 1.5, 3.0 & 6.0 Gb/s Analyzer

STX-460 BASE configurations can be factory-configured or field-upgraded with optional features:

SATA Host Exerciser (Emulates Host Initiator)
SATA Target Emulator (Emulates SATA Device)
SAS Host Exerciser (Emulates Host Initiator) *Includes SATA Host Exerciser
SAS Target Emulator (Emulates SAS Device) *Includes SATA Target Emulator

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