Asynchronous on-die eye scope
Some embodiments include apparatuses and methods having a receiver unit included in a die and a measurement unit included in the die. The receiver unit includes a sampler to sample a first signal based on timing of a first clock signal to generate a second signal. The measurement unit is arranged to sample the first signal based on timing of a second clock signal to provide information for generation of a graph presenting an eye scan of the first signal. The second clock signal has a frequency asynchronous with a frequency of the first clock signal.
1. An apparatus comprising:
a receiver unit included in a die, the receiver including a sampler to sample a first signal based on timing of a first clock signal to generate a second signal; and
a measurement unit included in the die to sample the first signal based on timing of a second clock signal to provide information for generation of a graph presenting an eye scan of the first signal, wherein the second clock signal has a frequency asynchronous with a frequency of the first clock signal, and the information comprises time code values associated with positions on the graph.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the frequency of the second clock signal is less than the frequency of the first clock signal.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the time code values are associated with positions on a horizontal axis of the graph.
4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the measurement unit is arranged to align fewer than all of the time code values to one unit interval associated with the signal.
5. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the measurement unit is arranged to generate the time code values based on a timing relationship between the second clock signal and an additional clock signal generated based on the first clock signal.
6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the information includes amplitude values associated with positions on a vertical axis of the graph.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the measurement unit includes a clock generator to generate the second clock signal independent of the first clock signal.
8. An apparatus comprising:
a first sampler to receive a first signal and generate a second signal based on timing of a first clock signal;
a divider to generate a second clock signal from the first clock signal;
a second sampler to sample the first signal at sampling points based on timing of a third clock signal asynchronous with the second clock signal and provide information associated with amplitude values of the sampling points;
a converter to generate time code values associated with the sampling points based on a timing relationship between the second and third clock signals; and a memory to store the amplitude values and the time code values.
9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the first and second samplers are included in a receiver.
10. The apparatus of claim 8 , further comprising an equalizer to generate the first signal.
11. The apparatus of claim 8 , further comprising:
a clock and data recovery circuit to adjust the timing of the first clock signal; and
a clock generator to generate the third clock signal.
12. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the converter includes a time-to-digital converter to generate the time code values based on a timing difference between the second and third clock signals.
13. The apparatus of claim 8 , further comprising a synthesizer to generate a graph of the sampling points based on the amplitude values and the time code values.
14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the synthesizer is arranged to generate the graph from fewer than all of the sampling points.
15. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the second sampler is arranged to sample the first signal, such that a maximum of one sampling point is sampled within one period of the second clock signal.
16. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the second sampler is arranged to sample the first signal, such that a maximum of one sampling point is sampled within multiple periods of the second clock signal.
17. An apparatus comprising:
conductive lines on a circuit board; and
a receiver to receive signals from the conductive lines, the receiver including:
a receiver unit included in a die, the receiver including a sampler to sample a first signal based on timing of a first clock signal to generate a second signal; and
a measurement unit included in the die to sample the first signal based on timing of a second clock signal to provide information for generation of a graph to present an eye scan of the first signal, wherein the second clock signal has a frequency asynchronous with the frequency of the first clock signal, and the information comprises time code values associated with positions on the graph.
18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the receiver includes a clock generator to generate the second clock signal, such that the second clock signal has a frequency less than a frequency of the first clock signal.
19. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the measurement unit includes a synthesizer to generate the graph having sampling points at coordinates based on the information.
20. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the measurement unit includes a time-to-digital converter arranged to generate the time code values based on a timing difference between the rising edges of the second signal and a third clock signal generated based on the first clock signal, the time code values are included in the information and are associated with positions on an axis of the graph.