Ellisys

Infobox_Company
name = Ellisys

type = Private
foundation = 2000
location = Geneva, Switzerland
industry = Protocol Test Equipment
products = USB, Wireless USB, WiMedia and Bluetooth protocol analyzers
homepage = [http://www.ellisys.com www.ellisys.com] |

Ellisys SA is a test and measurement company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland with branch offices in the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, California and Portland, Oregon. Ellisys is notable for its serial protocol testers that introduced several industry firsts in protocol testing.

The company has corporate functions and an R&D capability located at the Geneva headquarters. Manufacturing is outsourced to contract manufacturers with expertise in high-frequency wireless technology and printed circuit board assembly. Ellisys protocol testers are distributed in about 30 countries.

History

The company was founded in 2001 by Laurent Guinnard and Mario Pasquali, who met as students at the University of Geneva. The two collaborated on projects in the fields of optical communications, quantum cryptography and quantum teleportation in a research lab at the Engineering School.

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) was used as a data communication bus between the prototypes and the control computer. Guinnard and Pasquali developed most of the embedded, communication and Windows software for these projects. The challenge of developing reliable and fast USB communication for the project prototypes led to the idea of creating an affordable USB protocol analyzer.

Guinnard and Pasquali are now co-presidents of a firm that designs and markets protocol testers (sometimes also known as "bus analyzers" for serial personal area networking (PAN) and computer peripheral interconnection protocols such as USB, WiMedia Ultrawideband and Bluetooth.

The company's test equipment has two primary uses:
* Assisting new product development by engineers and software developers at semiconductor firms and computer peripheral manufacturers.
* Facilitating interoperability testing at industry events and workshops ("plugfests") organized by technology interest groups.

Innovations

Ellisys released several innovative features that contribute to improving USB, Wireless USB and WiMedia devices. Engineers use these features to improve their prototype and help certify their products.

Ellisys introduced several protocol testing innovations that were industry firsts:
* Real-time operation rather than the post-processing of captured data;
* Spooling captured data to an attached PC's hard drive for very long capture files rather than limiting data capture to the tester's internal memory capacity.
* Automatic generation of timing diagrams that permitted users to review captured data event-by-event along a timeline rather scrolling through a data file. Such diagrams help understand protocol issues and reduce interoperability problems with other devices.
* Protocol generation using a purpose-designed specialized processor to generate packets with very precise timing. It can be used to reproduce special error cases and improve device compatibility.

Product lines

* The USB Tracker 110 and USB Explorer 2xx series for USB protocol analysis, traffic generation and automated compliance testing.
* The WiMedia Explorer 3xx series for WiMedia and Ultrawideband protocol analysis, traffic generation and automated compliance testing.

External links

* [http://www.ellisys.com Ellisys Website]