Is there any new probe that mates to Samtec QTH and QSH series connectors (60 single-ended pins per row or so)? Can the E5385A be used to connect to these high speed connectors?
No, there are no adapters that will connect to Samtec connectors other than the one that was released about 10 years ago, whose name escapes me now.
The Samtec connectors that you mention are generally for "through" connections, where the intent is to pass a signal through the connector to another board.
Logic Analyzer connectors have an entirely different intent. They are supposed to be 'invisible', and not part of the circuit. To that end, the Soft Touch connector series was designed. The connection point is an inline pad, with a very low load 'pogo pin' connection. This same concept is used for PCI Express Gen1, Gen2, and Gen3, which require bandwidths and bit rates way beyond what a Logic Analyzer can handle.
The customer uses a ProcStarIII FPGA development board from Gidel and the connectors are used for data access (not thru) for an Altera FPGA model Stratix III. The speeds do not exceed 600 MHz. The Logic analyzer is a 16803A. Do you feel we can have some solution to ease his connection to the processor board?
I've never seen this board (Gidel ProcStar III) before, but I just went to the Gidel website, and it looks like they have an adapter board (PSDB_LA) that is designed specifically to provide the sort of access that you're looking for. Info is at http://www.gidel.com/psdb.htm
I didn't look too closely at the pictures, or download the manual, but does this adapter connect to the connectors that you are asking about?
As to speed, 600MHz is faster than the 16803 can support. That model can support either 250MHz or 500MHz capture, in state mode, depending on what option was ordered. Due to the BW of the front-end on the LA pods, there's no way to get reliable data, even in timing mode, above that. The connectors on the Gidel adapter board have the same BW limitation.
The Samtec connectors that you mention are generally for "through" connections, where the intent is to pass a signal through the connector to another board.
Logic Analyzer connectors have an entirely different intent. They are supposed to be 'invisible', and not part of the circuit. To that end, the Soft Touch connector series was designed. The connection point is an inline pad, with a very low load 'pogo pin' connection. This same concept is used for PCI Express Gen1, Gen2, and Gen3, which require bandwidths and bit rates way beyond what a Logic Analyzer can handle.
Algoss