No-Cost DDR3 Compliance Test Available For M1-OT Customers

ASA today announced the publication of a no-cost test script for their M1 Oscilloscope Tools software family that enables DDR3 compliance testing on Tektronix, Agilent, LeCroy or Yokogawa oscilloscopes.

Amherst, MA USA…. January 10, 2008

Amherst Systems Associates Inc (ASA Corp.) today announced the release of a test script for the DDR3 compliance spec for their M1-OT product family. The TestScript is available to any M1-OT customers for immediate download from the ASA-maintained web site www.ScopeApplications.com. DDR3 has been available from ASA since December 6, 2007, joining Agilent Technologies’ offering, which was released in August 2007.

The most important aspect of M1's DDR3 TestScript is that now customers that use non-Agilent oscilloscopes like Tektronix, LeCroy and Yokogawa scopes, as well as customers that use Agilent scopes that Agilent's new DDR3 test doesn't support, can all begin DDR3 testing today, and that Agilent-scope users now have a more cost-effective option as well. A second critical benefit delivered by the M1 product is correlation because engineers can now use an analysis engine that is identical no matter whose scope they are using. Manufacturer-to-manufacturer variation that you see among the products from the scope companies is eliminated by the use of M1's common "analysis engine". Further organizational efficiencies are contributed by still other commonalities such as a common data format, a common interface, and a common automation standard.

While comparing M1's solution with Agilent's, ASA President Mike Williams noted "We gave them a little good-natured ribbing about forgetting who was first last year on DDR2 (you can read about that at www.amherstsystems. com/newsletter/asa-news-12-18-06.htm if you’re interested), but full credit and sincere congratulations to the Agilent guys for getting there first on DDR3. One point to note.. if you add the costs of everything you need to run their DDR3 up, it comes out to about $16k in round numbers. If you add up the costs of everything you need to get into M1, it varies from $1k to $8k in round numbers depending on your scope. Interestingly, since this applies to the version of M1 we make for Agilent (E2690B, Agilent M1 Oscilloscope Tools), it means that Agilent now has two DDR3 compliance test solutions they can offer their customers at two very different price points. I think it would be a valuable exercise for the customer to look carefully at all of the other things they get with M1 for a lot less money."

Actually, if a customer is purchasing a new oscilloscope, they may be eligible to receive a no-cost M1-OT license through ASA’s Cirrus Program, which means that for some customers, the total cost to begin DDR3 testing would be zero. For more information about M1 Cirrus, go to www.amherst-systems.com/m1-cirrus-program.htm.

With regard to M1OT's automation capabilities, Williams noted, "On December 5, one of our engineers discovered that Agilent had published a DDR3 compliance test in late August. After a couple of emails went around asking if we already had it or not.. and we didn't.. my Chief Engineer Tom Zych clicked it together in M1's ScriptBuilder the next morning in about an hour before he began his actual work day."

He went on to state, "While clicking a DDR3 script together isn't really the level of inventive contribution we brag about after work.. the rapid automation capability we've built into M1 is. Our automation approach.. ScriptBuilder... allows any customer to do this kind of thing quickly themselves inside of M1. They can have the test or the automation the same hour they decide they want it. It eliminates the bottleneck created by relying on the scope companies to do this. I'm guessing there are already M1 customers out there that have created their own DDR3 script in M1, since it's pretty much read-andclick from the spec. The automation abilities in M1 provide an open solutions architecture for compliance test users and authors that puts the power to rapidly prototype and share any series of measurements they might need to make. And if M1 doesn't have one of the measurements already onboard... very, very unlikely by the way... you just create that in M1's MeasurementBuilder and you're off to the races." For additional information on M1’s open solutions architecture, please visit www.amherst-systems.com/organization-level-benefits.htm.

For a further comparison of DDR3 compliance tools, please visit www.amherst-systems.com/ddr3.htm

U.S. Availability and Pricing

The DDR3 TestScript is available for immediate no-cost download to any M1 Oscilloscope Tools user from www.ScopeApplications.com.

M1-OT is available now. M1-OT employs "scalable pricing", where the actual price level is determined by the scope with which you will use it. Pricing ranges from $995US to $7995US in five steps. For more information, please see the product web site.

For further information about M1-OT, please email ASA at info@amherst-systems.com or visit us on the web at www.M1OT.com.

A photo of M1™ can be found at www.amherst-systems.com/press-photos.htm.

You may also request a quote at either sales@amherst-systems.com or on the web at www.amherst-systems.com/onlinestore.htm.

About ASA Corp.

ASA Corp. is an engineering/technology company focused squarely on clock & timing engineering, and related measurement science. As an innovator and a leader in this field for over 25 years, ASA has helped forge how clock & timing is done today, as well as contributing significantly to what future clock and measurement technologies will look like. ASA’s patented approach to analyzing jitter and timing in both clock and data-streams is instantiated in the M1™ product family, which has become the de facto standard for how high-precision timing is measured. The M1™ family of timing and jitter analysis tools is both the functionality and precision leader in every market segment in which it competes, and is the only tool which runs on the instruments of all of the major manufacturers. By combining unique know-how and experience with industry leading measurement products, ASA is in a unique position to deliver significant, genuine value to it’s hundreds of clients and partners worldwide.

Press Contact:

Bob Russell
+1-413-596-5354 voice
+1-413-596-9686 fax
bob_russell@amherst-systems.com

New release of M1 Oscilloscope Tools™ showcases technology for automatic detection of hidden waveform anomalies

ASA today announced Version 5 of their award-winning M1 Oscilloscope Tools software family. The centerpiece of V5 is a new technology called "Hidden Anomaly Location™" or HAL™. HAL is an expert system that can find a wide range of waveform flaws that might not be obvious to the user such as signal integrity errors, unexpected changes in waveform parametrics, or behavioral problems in PLLs.

Amherst, MA USA…. November 14, 2007

Amherst Systems Associates Inc (ASA Corp.) today announced Version 5 of their M1 Oscilloscope Tools software family. The centerpiece of version 5 is a new patent-pending technology called "Hidden Anomaly Location", or HAL.

HAL is comprised of dozens of independently operating software "agents" which scour each scope acquisition in the background, independent of what the operator is doing, to ascertain the presences of various known "bad things"... waveform anomalies. When an anomaly is located, an annunciator informs the operator. The operator may then view a screen that indicates the status (running/pass/failed) of all of the agents. Any agents that are showing as "failed" can be queried at the press of a button to display a typically-graphical analysis of the details of that particular failure. For example, if the period were drifting, a graph of nominal period vs acquisition is shown with a message something like:

"The mean for the period on Ch 3 appears to be drifting. A nominal drift of 1.2% over the past 23 acquisitions has been detected."

However, HAL's contribution doesn't end with discovery of a potential anomaly. On each failure analysis screen is a TELL ME MORE button, which takes the user to the page for that particular pathology (e.g. metastability or reflection or non- stationarity or...) in ASA's Waveform Integrity Knowledge Base™. The knowledge-base is a wiki-like database of waveform anomalies and pathologies. Each entry will contain a description of at least the following:

• Summary Diagnosis and Suggested Solution Path
• Description
• Presentation – what it looks like
• Causes
• Effects/Impact
• Related pathologies
• Solutions
• Related topics
• Sample files – M1 downloadable waveforms so you can see other examples right inside of M1

"HAL is an expert system that constantly monitors an enormous number of aspects of waveform health, regardless of what brand of scope you're using", according to Mike Williams, ASA's President and Chief Product Designer. "When it finds an issue, HAL doesn't just alert you, it provides an explanation and suggested solutions before you ever leave the bench. This is technology that will revolutionize the way measurement workflow takes place in engineering organizations."

Williams went on to note, "The kind of things HAL is looking for include the kind of things you are just very unlikely to find in normal device or system testing. You might have, for example, low-grade metastability on a single transition across several dozen 20,000-cycle acquisitions. From over 25 years of consulting in clock and timing engineering, that's the kind of issue I've seen change release dates by weeks and months. And it's the kind of thing you never see until very late in the design cycle. But that is exactly the kind of thing HAL is intended to pick up. By finding these issues at the earliest possible stage, you have reduced the impact that the anomaly has to a minimum. One of the usage models we are already seeing interest in is using HAL as a screening tool for waveform health, without making any other specific measurements, or by combining HAL with M1™'s built-in automation abilities. Either way you get a fast answer and a lot more confidence there aren't things lurking in your signals that your customer might find."

ASA is applying an area of information technology called knowledge-capture and reuse with their Waveform Integrity Knowledgebase. Entries in the WIK are authored and edited not only by ASA engineers, but also by engineers in the M1 user community. ASA reviews all submissions prior to their being posted. A number of ASA's most trusted customers have already volunteered to populate entries in the knowledge base. Additionally, ASA will be partnering with some signal-integrity heavies like Eric Bogatin, of BeTheSignal.com to make their expertise available to the customers by authoring key entries in the WIK. "Eric and I have been friends since the early 90's", said Mike Williams, "when we traveled around the world together on several occasions, speaking in the old HP High-Speed Symposium. Eric's one of the smartest guys in the field and he can make an especially vexing subject like signal integrity accessible to engineers that don't work in that field everyday."

According to Bogatin, “Having a personal digital assistant sitting on your shoulder and riding shot gun for you when you are focused on debugging your system is a great idea. Even I have a hard time remembering all the possible root causes for effects I see on a scope. With HAL, I’m hoping to leverage the experience of other experts in the field. For example, Mike has worked in the clock distribution field for decades. His, as well as other's contributions to the Waveform Knowledge Base will make that kind of significant experience available to the engineer at the click of a button.”

Hidden Anomaly Location is not the first application of embedded intelligence in M1 Oscilloscope Tools. M1's "AutoMeasure™" facility automatically deploys an appropriate set of measurements based upon the number and type of signals found, as well as vertically scaling the signals to optimize the accuracy of the digitizers. It also tries to keep an eye on the incoming signals to recognize if the signal setup has changed and, if so, reassign existing measurements to the available channels. The operator is always given the opportunity to decline or accept any and all decisions that result from embedded intelligence, as well as to mute the behavior entirely. Agents in HAL can be muted as needed, both individually and by group.

ASA has dedicated a design sub-team to extending and refining HAL. "There are a large number of fascinating new arenas to explore with the HAL technology," according to Tom Zych, ASA's Chief Engineer. "Over the next several releases, you can expect to see significant expansion of what HAL can do and how it does it that go far beyond what we're announcing today. Making HAL a stronger contributor to M1's collaboration value proposition will definitely be a part of that."

Hidden Anomaly Location joins a large number of other powerful capabilities included in M1 Oscilloscope Tools at no additional charge... like measurement work-flow automation, built-in compliance tests, an Rj/Dj capability that employs neural networks to calibrate error and instrument noise out of the results, and numerous productivity and collaboration tools. "Virtually any other company would have made HAL a stand-alone product and charged customers to the moon for it", said Williams, "and actually, they'd pay it because HAL would pay for itself the first time it found something. However, ASA is committed to a product strategy of including 100% of our innovation in the product… no options. HAL is no different… it's in the product and ready to start tracking down subtle and hidden waveform problems now."

Other changes out in version five include further optimization of the user-interface and additions to the exploratory tools to further speed up moving through waveform space, as well as the addition of a chess game. "When M1 is churning away doing all the work, life at the bench can get a little dull. We wanted you to be able to keep yourself entertained. For some reason, chess seemed like a logical choice", said Mike Williams.

U.S. Availability and Pricing

Version 5 of M1 OT will be available December 2007. M1 OT employs "scalable pricing", where the actual price level is determined by the scope to which you will attach it. Pricing ranges from $995US to $7995US in five steps. For more information, please see the product web site.

For further information about, please email ASA at info@amherst-systems.com or visit us on the web at www.M1OT.com.

Information about M1™ can be found at the product landing page, www.M1OT.com.

Further information about Eric Bogatin is available at www.bethesignal.com.

You may also request a quote at either sales@amherst-systems.com or on the web at www.Amherst-Systems.com/online-store.htm.

About ASA Corp.

ASA Corp. is an engineering/technology company focussed squarely on clock & timing engineering, and related measurement science. As an innovator and a leader in this field for over 25 years, ASA has helped forge how clock & timing is done today, as well as contributing significantly to what future clock and measurement technologies will look like. ASA’s patented approach to analyzing jitter and timing in both clock and data-streams is instantiated in the M1™ product family, which has become the de facto standard for how high-precision timing is measured. The M1™ family of timing and jitter analysis tools is both the functionality and precision leader in every market segment in which it competes, and is the only tool which runs on the instruments of all of the major manufacturers. By combining unique know-how and experience with industry leading measurement products, ASA is in a unique position to deliver significant, genuine value to it’s hundreds of clients and partners worldwide.

Press Contact:

Bob Russell
+1-413-596-5354 voice
+1-413-596-9686 fax
bob_russell@amherst-systems.com

ASA Corp. Announces “The Cirrus Program”

ASA to provide software valued at up to $7995 to targeted customer segments that use Agilent or Yokogawa real-time oscilloscopes free of charge

Amherst, MA USA, December 4th , 2006

Amherst Systems Associates Inc (ASA Corp.) announced today the North American kickoff of a program that will aggressively give away their premium oscilloscope analysis and productivity software package, M1 Oscilloscope Tools™ (M1 OT), to specifically targeted customers. Coined "The Cirrus Program" after an experimental cloud seeding program from the 1940's, the objective of Cirrus is to expose engineers on every major R&D team in North America, and eventually worldwide, to the benefits and cost savings they can realize from M1 OT by providing them a full license at no cost.

M1 Oscilloscope Tools is an integrated suite of oscilloscope analysis, debug, automation and productivity tools sold under a scalable pricing model at five different price levels which range from $7995 (M1 OT Expert) down to $995 (M1 OT Guide). A scope's performance and cost determine which M1 OT Companion level it is associated with.

Under the Cirrus Program, an engineer that works at an eligible company/organization, and which is in the process of purchasing, or has taken delivery within the last 30 days (moving window), of a new Agilent realtime oscilloscope that corresponds to the M1-OT Expert product (typ. $7995), a Yokogawa real-time scope that corresponds to the M1 OT Professional product (typ. $3995) or a new Agilent scope 6GHz or above can receive an M1 OT license at no charge.

“ASA has by far the best value proposition in the marketplace, and we want engineers and their managers to know about it and to experience first-hand the impact M1 OT can deliver in terms of the insights, cost savings and productivity gains,” said ASA’s president Michael Williams. “When you purchase an upper tier real-time oscilloscope, the manufacturer's software options can cost as much as $25,000 to $35,000, or more, because of the a la carte pricing strategy employed by all of the scope manufacturers. M1-OT includes everything, for one price. M1 supports more of every manufacturer's oscilloscope line than the manufacturer's own tools do. It includes everything it needs to be virtually every customer's first and only choice to make their RT scope genuinely usable. M1 OT does more... it does it better... and it costs less. W hile Cirrus is running, for many customers it's free which means they can save $25,000 or more over the native software that M1-OT can replace. The original Cirrus Project was about changing the weather. Our Cirrus Program is about changing how all engineers use their scopes, and what they pay for them.”

ASA’s Cirrus Program will launch in North America on December 4th, 2006 and run through February 4th, 2007. ASA may extend this program to other regions at a later date. Complete program information including customer eligibility and program restrictions are available by contacting ASA using the contact information listed below.

U.S. Availability

The Cirrus Program and discounted accessories are available December 4th, 2006.

For further information about The Cirrus Program, please email ASA or visit us on the web .

Information and photos of M1™ can be found on our web site .

About ASA Corp.

ASA Corp. is an engineering/technology company focussed squarely on clock & timing engineering and related measurement science. As an innovator and a leader in this field for the past 25 years, ASA has helped forge how clock & timing is done today, as well as contributing significantly to what future clock and measurement technologies will look like. ASA’s patented approach to analyzing jitter and timing in both clock and datastreams is instantiated in the M1 Oscilloscope Tools™ family, which has become the de facto standard for how high-precision timing is measured. The M1™ family of timing and jitter analysis tools is both the functionality and precision leader in every market segment in which it competes, and is the only tool which runs on the instruments of all of the major manufacturers. By combining unique know-how and experience with industry leading measurement products, ASA is in a unique position to deliver significant, genuine value to its clients and partners worldwide.

Press Contact:

Bob Russell
+1-413-596-5354 voice
+1-413-596-9686 fax
Bob_Russell@Amherst-Systems.com