The CXL® Consortium Compliance Working Group (CWG) Co-Chairs, Michael Hall and Nathan White, recently hosted a webinar covering the CXL Compliance Program, which enables compliance and interoperability testing for CXL devices, and the Consortium’s Integrators List as well as information on the recent CXL 1.1 and pre-FYI CXL 2.0 test event and upcoming Compliance Test Events.
If you were not able to attend the live webinar, the recording is available via BrightTALK and YouTube. The webinar presentation slides are available for download on the CXL Consortium Website. We received great questions from the audience during the live Q&A but were not able to address them all during the webinar. Below, we’ve included answers to the questions we didn’t get to during the live webinar.
Q: Once we are listed on the CXL Integrators List, do we need to participate in every CXL Test Event to continue to be listed in the Integrators List?
No, once you are listed on the Integrators List you will not need to continue to retest the same version of the product or participate in future CXL Compliance Test Events. However, you may want to consider retesting the product if newer versions or updates are released to ensure the product is both interoperable and CXL compliant.
Q: The binning vs non-binning tests have changed some in the latest version compared to the version that was used at the CXL Compliance Test Event 001. There are also more tests in the latest suite that did not exist before. Where can I access the latest list of tests required to get onto the Integrators List for CXL 1.1?
The latest list of CXL 1.1 Compliance testing software is available for members to download on the CXL Consortium Causeway page. Visit our website to learn more about Consortium membership.
Q: Are the compliance algorithms required for memory-only CXL Type 3 devices which would not normally have any reason to issue upstream Request TLPs?
No, a CXL Type 3 device does not need to implement the algorithms. We recognize that there is no need for a Type 3 device to initiate traffic from inside. Therefore, we scrubbed all the tests that were originally specified to use the test algorithms and implemented a different method for memory error injection tests that was introduced by an ECN (Engineering Change Notice) for those situations in the CXL 2.0 specification.
Q: When is the next CXL Compliance Test Event? How can a company participate in a Test Event?
The next CXL Compliance Test Event is scheduled for the first week of October, from October 2 – 6 in Portland, Oregon. Any CXL Consortium member should have received a notification for the upcoming test event and can register for the event. If you are a CXL Consortium member and did not receive the email notification, contact CXL Admin at admin@computeexpresslink.org, and they will help ensure that you receive notification of the next CXL Compliance Test Event and register your particular device. This registration process allows us to coordinate testing for each device and across all devices in a timely manner. If you’re not currently a member of the CXL Consortium, we invite you to consider joining the Consortium.