I3C Cafe - Now Brewing: A New Digital Protocol
MIPI I3C Interop Workshop Review - June 2022 (Munich)
Respecting the privacy of the participating companies, this article will focus on the high-level outcomes of the event and purposefully avoid a lot of exciting specific details. If you're interested in the details, be sure to attend the next event.
As mentioned in this previous article, MIPI Alliance hosted their first I3C Interop Workshop open to non-members in June 2022. I couldn't miss the opportunity to perform ample real-world testing with our I3C Basic Protocol Analyzer as well as get feedback from the engineers designing / validating I3C devices, so of course I attended the two day workshop. By all measures, the event was a great success, and let me tell you why.
Real-World Testing & Feedback from Experts
First off, our I3C Basic Protocol Analyzer plugin for Saleae Logic performed incredibly well and was a hit amongst the engineers in the room. A few minor formatting/aesthetical bugs were identified with help from the attendees and were corrected.
Having tested it out on numerous real-world I3C devices, and alongside other I3C test and measurement equipment, it's clear that the protocol analyzer is a world-class development tool. I couldn't be more proud of our team of developers who worked tirelessly to bring this analyzer to life.
I'd especially like to thank the team at Saleae for providing us with several demo devices for the workshop attendees to use.
Incredible Collaboration
Beyond the verification and testing of our own I3C product, it's really important to highlight the true value of participating in this workshop: collaboration!
The collaboration among the teams from various companies was beautiful to see. Engineers from Semiconductor Company X sitting down with engineers from Semiconductor Company Y to help them exercise and validate the performance of their I3C devices, sharing their techniques and even using their own proprietary tools to create certain edge cases, was truly refreshing to see and be a part of. Keep in mind that X and Y are in fact direct competitors on many different sensing technologies.
It reminded me of the collaboration during undergraduate studies EE lab projects, where everyone is competing for the highest marks or grand prize, but at the same time, helping each other succeed. I'm not sure I've seen anything like this in industry. I've now got direct connections to some of the world's leading experts with this protocol.
I paired up with another engineer who was also testing out his I3C protocol decoder for a test equipment company. Since we both had passive I3C devices, it only made sense that we pair up and take captures off the same bus / set of test devices. By observing the same bus, we were able to cross-check our decoded results, not only helping us, but also giving the semiconductor teams confidence in the results -- multiple, independently developed tools were confirming the same performance information. I had an absolute blast meeting everyone and learning from everyone in the room.
Let's do this again
Having attended this event and seeing first hand how the magic happens, there's no way I'll miss out on the next one. It would be a huge mistake for any company working on I3C products to skip out on these.
The next event is in the early planning phases and is likely to be held in Vancouver, Canada in October. We'll be sure to write about it on I3C Cafe when more details are available. I'm absolutely planning to attend again.
Already working with I3C? Check out our I3C Basic Protocol Analyzer Plugin for Saleae Logic...
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