SAN FRANCISCO -- Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced the first system protocol-test solution for Advanced Switching Interconnect (ASI), a switched-fabric interconnect standard supported by more than 60 companies in the communications, storage and computer markets.

The Agilent E2980A enables design and verification engineers to quickly and thoroughly test ASI chipsets from first silicon through board turn-on to overall system verification. Software and hardware engineers in R&D, validation and quality assurance can test either single or multiple ASI interfaces with complete test coverage, reducing the risk of expensive, time-consuming rework.

ASI is a switched-fabric standard based on PCI Express technology that allows computer components such as CPU nodes and IO nodes to be interconnected in a variety of topologies. Protocol tunneling allows any protocol to be embedded in ASI. The standard incorporates definitions for quality of service with peer-to-peer or multicast communications. It also defines load/store and queuing protocols. The Agilent E2980A is the industry’s first solution that provides protocol analysis as well as protocol exercising features for ASI. It is ideal for bring-up and debug, validation and compliance testing of ASI components and systems.

Agilent Technologies Inc.