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OBSERVATIONS

Whenever two companies formally establish a strategic working relationship, as Agilent Technologies and ASSET did three and a half years ago, you’d expect that the companies would be the primary beneficiaries. That wasn’t exactly the case in this instance.

Certainly our two companies have benefited greatly from working together on certain JTAG issues as they relate to high-volume manufacturing test on ICT systems, but if we hadn’t based this working relationship on addressing the needs of our users, we wouldn’t be so excited today about the future. The introduction of the Medalist i5000 ICT Series and the new Medalist ScanWorks bundle mark a transition to an exciting new phase in the benefits we are able to offer users.

Back in the Beginning

When ASSET and Agilent first teamed up in October of 2001, we knew we had struck on something significant. Fully integrating ScanWorks into the Agilent 3070 series of ICT systems opened up a whole new realm of benefits to the suppliers of electronic systems. For the first time, boundary-scan tests developed on a ScanWorks station to validate or debug a printed circuit board design in development could easily and seamlessly accompany that circuit board or assembly as it moved into high-volume manufacturing where those same JTAG tests could be deployed on the 3070 integrated with ScanWorks for the 3070.

But we didn’t stop there.

New Configurations

As more and more users took advantage of test re-use and the fully integrated ScanWorks for the 3070, we set our sights on offering a wider array of configuration options. It didn’t matter to us how extensively boundary scan might have been implemented in a customer’s designs or their volume of manufacturing, we wanted every type of user to be able to reduce costs by re-using JTAG tests throughout design, manufacturing and even later in field service.

Our new solutions were configured to meet the needs of anyone’s budget and to provide configuration flexibility so that boundary-scan re-use could be deployed immediately. And, of course, we wanted to take advantage of all of ScanWorks’ powerful and easy-to-use JTAG tools. We met our objectives by adding two new configurations to the Fully Integrated ScanWorks for the 3070. These new products were called the Externally Integrated ScanWorks for the 3070 and the Internally Integrated ScanWorks for the 3070. (Click here for more information on these three configurations.)

With three solutions we are able to match the power, throughput and budgetary requirements of any user. Even manufacturers just getting started with boundary scan and who had UNIX controllers on their 3070s could integrate ScanWorks and its JTAG tools into their manufacturing flow. Moreover, dual-controller 3070s with PC and UNIX controllers could take advantage of ScanWorks for the 3070 no matter which controller was driving the 3070.

The Medalist Emerges

The recent introduction of our Medalist i5000 ICT platform signaled another phase in our relationship with ASSET and its ScanWorks JTAG system. The i5000 is an ICT tester that’s easy to operate, competitively priced and expertly supported worldwide. The advantages of the i5000 include simple operation, fast and easy deployment, low cost of entry, transportable tests for operational flexibility, and stable and repeatable tests for consistent quality control.

With the introduction of the i5000, we also took the opportunity to upgrade the boundary scan solution on the entire Medalist product line (3070 and i5000). Now known as Medalist ScanWorks, this bundle of integrated JTAG solutions combines ScanWorks with Agilent’s ICT-specific tools, Interconnect Plus and Silicon Nails, at a breakthrough pricing level that’s more cost-effective than ever before.

Medalist ScanWorks brings to the i5000 the same benefits of test re-use as ScanWorks for the 3070. In fact, ScanWorks tests are fully compatible with both 3070 and the i5000. By bundling ScanWorks with Agilent’s ICT-specific JTAG tools, more comprehensive test suites can be easily developed, offering better test coverage. For example, a test suite containing both ScanWorks and Silicon Nails tests would achieve higher test coverage than either test type could on its own.

We, ASSET and Agilent, have certainly worked at our relationship over the last three-plus years. But, in the end, we had good reason to. We were addressing the needs of our users, devising more cost-effective solutions and, ultimately, offering better test methods to OEMs, contract manufacturers, ODMs and their supply chains.