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July 2025
M8048A
Keysight/Agilent M8048A, Differential Signaling, Compact Form Factor, ISI Channel Boards
Actual item may vary if no part number is provided on quote request.
✔ 2 Year Warranty Included
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Andrew Gar**** Verified Buyer
" Amazing to work with and had my order within 1 week after purchasing with all NI certs and data that were needed. "
March 2025
Said Sai**** Verified Buyer
" Competent contact for highly specialized components. The support team is very knowledgeable. Many thanks for the help and the fast shipping! "
January 2025
Bob C**** Verified Buyer
" Jason was able to get our emergency situation taken care of quickly and professionally. "
May 2025
Gregg Flecki**** Verified Buyer
" Great service and great products. This is my 2nd time using Apex Waves, truly impressed. "
January 2025
Carol Zimme**** Verified Buyer
" Very responsive and helpful, competitive pricing. Good source! "
July 2025
Andrew Gar**** Verified Buyer
" Amazing to work with and had my order within 1 week after purchasing with all NI certs and data that were needed. "
March 2025
Said Sai**** Verified Buyer
" Competent contact for highly specialized components. The support team is very knowledgeable. Many thanks for the help and the fast shipping! "
January 2025
Bob C**** Verified Buyer
" Jason was able to get our emergency situation taken care of quickly and professionally. "
May 2025
Gregg Flecki**** Verified Buyer
" Great service and great products. This is my 2nd time using Apex Waves, truly impressed. "
January 2025
Keysight/Agilent M8048A ISI Channel Boards
The Keysight/Agilent M8048A ISI Channels are a group of cascaded differential PC board traces that will allow engineers to simulate channel loss in their high-speed serial receiver test configurations. They include eight traces made from realistic Nelco FR4 material with the scattering parameter S21 defined. They have been separated into two groups of four. There are four short traces (7.7 to 12.8 inches) and four long traces (14.4 to 34.4 inches). Their small size allows them to be placed very close to the D.U.T., which minimizes additional parasitic signal degradation. As stated above, these generic ISI channels support Keysight's compliance boards for all forms of PCI Express, SATA, DisplayPort, and HDMI.
As the traces can be connected inside an individual M8048A enclosure, or as two separate enclosures are linked together, this allows for a vast range of loss profiles to be created using incremental step changes. Additionally, when traces are cascaded together, they create an intermediary loss profile value, which is needed for repeatable characterization of receiver jitter tolerance by creating intersymbol interference (ISI), a type of data-dependent bounded deterministic jitter caused by the frequency dependency of both the attenuation and dispersion characteristics found in actual transmission media. The Nelco FR4 substrate has been shown to mirror the electrical characteristics of low-cost substrates commonly found in many forms of consumer electronic products and computer systems. Therefore, using the known S21 characteristic curve, test engineers can now easily predict how much eye-diagram closure there will be along with the amount of jitter that will exist at a given data rate and test pattern.
Each interface standard (SAS, USB 3.x, UHS-II, TB, SATA, DP & PCIe) defines the channel loss level and resulting ISI jitter (usually expressed in picoseconds or millisecond intervals) a receiver must be able to withstand. Thus, by selecting the appropriate trace configuration within the M8048A enclosure to place between a signal generator and the d.u.t., it creates the identical loss condition specified by each of the standards. This creates a reliable means of testing a receiver's jitter tolerance and sensitivity in addition to eliminating the variability present due to the use of physical cabling and/or backplane structures. This method provides repeatable and correlated results regardless of where/when testing occurs.
| Model Name | M8048A |
|---|---|
| Part Type | ISI Channel Emulator |
| Manufacturer | Keysight |
| Legacy Manufacturer | Agilent |
| Trace Count | 8 Differential |
| Short Lengths | 7.7", 8.9", 10.2", 12.8" |
| Long Lengths | 14.4", 19.7", 27.6", 34.4" |
| Board Material | Nelco FR4 |
| Signaling | Differential |
| Cascading | Internal or dual-unit |
| Form Factor | Compact, DUT?adjacent |
| S21 Data | Known per trace |
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