eSPI Analysis Application

$1,500

Part Number: TP601010

Availability: In-Stock

Please note, this is an application that requires installation on the Promira™ Serial Platform.

First released by Intel in June 2013, the Enhanced Serial Peripheral Interface (“eSPI”) is designed as a replacement for the Low Pin Count (“LPC”) bus. eSPI supports communication between Embedded Controller (EC), Baseboard Management Controller (BMC), Super-I/O (SIO) and Port-80 debug cards. eSPI was available in the Sky Lake chipset (2015) and is available in the Kaby Lake [current] chipset. Cannonlake will support eSPI and is slated for release the second half of 2017. Icelake is scheduled for release in 2019 and it will mark the first chipset when eSPI becomes mandatory.

Prior to this specification, Embedded Controller (EC), Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) and Super I/O (SIO) were connected to the chipset through the Low Pin Count (LPC) bus.

The Total Phase eSPI Analysis Application is the first eSPI monitor in the industry. With this application you will be able to monitor eSPI communication between multiple eSPI devices:

Monitor communication between a master and slaves on data lines
Support for single, dual and quad I/O
Support for clock speeds up to 66MHz
Monitor up to 5 channels (peripheral, virtual wire, OOB, Flash, Independent)
Monitor up to 2 slave select lines
Monitor 2 alert lines
Monitor 2 reset lines
Match triggers, hardware filters and statistics

When used in conjunction with our Data Center™ Software you will be able to capture and display eSPI bus data in true real time through the Promira Serial Platform. Total Phase provides the only protocol analysis software in the industry with true real-time performance and cross-platform support for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

While eSPI utilizes the physical interface designed for SPI, including the master-multi slave topology and data sampling rules with respect to clock, the similarity ends there!

eSPI

Figure 1: SPI bus: single master and single slave (Image reproduced from Enhanced Serial Peripheral Interface (eSPI))

eSPI has a transaction layer on top of this, which defines a packet based protocol. Data Center is a world-class capture and display visualization tool to help accelerate your eSPI development.

For more information on the eSPI specification please visit the Intel site.

In addition to non-intrusively monitoring eSPI, Total Phase also offers eSPI Active Example Files. These files are available for all Promira platform devices with SPI Active - Level 1 Application, SPI Active - Level 2 Application, or SPI Active - Level 3 Application enabled. Performance (I/O compatibility and clock speed supported) matchs your licensed SPI Active application level. eSPI active examples functionality is not available for Promira Serial Platform units without licensed SPI Active Applications.

Detailed technical information about the Promira Serial Platform and eSPI Analysis Application can be found in the following:

• Promira Serial Platform User Manual

• Promira eSPI Analyzer User Manual

Overview

Monitor communication between a master and slaves on data lines
Support for single, dual and quad I/O
Support for clock speeds up to 66MHz
Monitor up to 5 channels (peripheral, virtual wire, OOB, Flash, Independent)
Monitor up to 2 slave select lines
Monitor up to 2 alert lines
Monitor up to 2 reset lines
Free software and API available
Fully Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X compatible

		LiveDisplay™ Technology View eSPI traffic as it is generated on the bus in true real time Shorten debugging and development time by seeing data as they happens

		LiveFilter™ Tool Filter for and against specific indices, errors, endpoints, device addresses, PIDs, data patterns, and more Seamlessly switch between filtered and non-filtered views with a single click

		LiveSearch™ Tool Find text, hexadecimal, and ASCII data quickly Easily locate bus events, data patterns, and more

		Hierarchical View Data displayed in easy-to-read tree view format Enhanced readability with data intuitively grouped into expandable and collapsible transactions

What is Included?

The eSPI Analysis Application is a download that runs on your Promira Serial Platform unit. Once you have purchased a Promira Serial Platform, you'll be able to instantly download and add new applications as they become available.

The Performance of the Promira Serial Platform is determined by applications licensed for a specific unit.

Target Bus Interface

eSPI Master/Slave
Support for single, dual and quad I/O
Support for clock speeds up to 66MHz

Host Bus Interface

USB 2.0 Micro B receptacle
10/100/1000 Ethernet receptacle

Dimensions (w x d x l)

77.5 mm x 29.2 mm x 115.6 mm
(3.05 in. x 1.15 in. x 4.55 in.)

Weight

153 g (0.34 lbs)

Operating Temperature

10 ºC – 35 ºC (50 ºF – 95 ºF)

PC Requirements & Supported Operating Systems (32-bit and 64-bit)

Windows: 7, 8, 8.1, 10
Linux: Red Hat, Ubuntu, Fedora, SuSE
Mac OS X: 10.7-10.14
Web Browser with HTML5 compatibility (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, etc.)

Promira Serial Platform eSPI Analyzer User Manual

Resources

User Manuals

Quick Start Guides

Downloads

Support

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Reviews

1

Robert R.

eSPI Analysis = Close, but I'd really like more

2017-11-30

eSPI is a small market, so it probably doesn't get much testing. Consequently this has a few bugs and doesn't feel refined. I want to monitor an eSPI bus using Data Center 6.73.007. eSPI is running at minimum speed (20 MHz) in quad mode, and the analyzer generally decodes and shows me what's happening. Overall it's useful. But there are a few gripes and issues: 1. TotalPhase goes to the trouble of decoding and interpreting the packets, then only does a mediocre job of presenting it. It's only a step or two above raw data, which is a shame because it takes a fair bit of protocol decode to get to that point. Anyway, I'd love some columns for things like: - Cycle Type (GetCfg, PutCfg, GetVWire, PutMemRd32Short, etc.), - command phase, - response phase (command/response phases are currently in a single column along with the whole transaction, so it's difficult to parse quickly), - status reg (gets returned in every cycle, would be nice to have in its own column) - address/register (when applicable) - CRC pass/fail 2. [bug] I exported to a .csv so I could separate commands and responses (using some 'if' statements to copy to new columns). Some of the transactions were missing commands. I noticed the "Index" column skipped a number here and there, so I expanded all transactions in Data Center and exported again (with no filters selected) and got the same thing. It just skips some of the lines when exporting. 3. [bug] When transitioning from single mode to quad mode the analyzer switches as soon as the bit is set instead of at the end of the transaction. The effect is that the response phase for that command is always lost. Doesn't matter too much. 4. [bug?] Some of my transactions have all 0 responses, sometimes the responses are garbled data. It's hard to prove that I haven't screwed up timing or signal integrity or something, but I did enough investigation that I'm satisfied the response wasn't all 0. Also, the master would have behaved differently if some of those bits had been as reported, so I'm pretty sure this is an analyzer bug. In the end I'm still using this because it's useful (and we already bought it), but it's frustrating that it's not better than it is.