Connect - ASSET InterTech

DFT (design-for-test) is like the weather. Many of us talk about it, but few can do anything about it. Well, at least in the boundary-scan industry, we’re out to change that. Some vendors shy away from the tough issues, but we have a track record for tackling the tough ones like automatic cluster modeling, program automation, driving the development of new standards and now DFT.

TEST DATA OUT

Verify testability before prototypes are built
by Dave Bonnett

The new DFT Analyzer can reduce manufacturing costs and speed up a new product’s time-to-market by examining the JTAG design-for-test (DFT) features in a circuit board design, alerting engineers to any inconsistencies and recommending changes that will yield improved test coverage. And this can all be done before any prototypes of the board are built. Schedule risks can be reduced and expensive re-spins of prototypes eliminated.

TAPPING IN

ASSET and Agilent collaborate on web-based BSDL validation service

For several years Agilent has offered an e-mail-based boundary scan description language (BSDL) checker service that has been used more than 90,000 times on semiconductor devices. Now, ASSET and Agilent have upgraded the service and made it directly accessible from the World Wide Web. ASSET is hosting and supporting the new BSDL Validation site on an ongoing basis.

INSIDE ASSET

International Test Technologies µMaster now supports ScanWorks’ Intel® IBIST

Growing out of their year-long strategic relationship, ASSET and International Test Technologies recently announced that µMaster, a microprocessor emulation-based functional test platform, now supports ScanWorks’ Intel® IBIST technology. IBIST (Interconnect Built In Self Test) is being embedded by Intel into its next-generation processors and chipsets.

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Enhancements to ScanWorks Design Browser turns a few heads

The Design Browser is a lot more than a pretty face on ScanWorks. In its own right, it’s a powerful communications and collaboration tool that can be used by several prominent groups in user organizations, including design/development, manufacturing, management, purchasing, the test department and others. Recent enhancements to the Design Browser are worth a second look.

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ITC meetings reveal an evolving 1149.1 boundary scan standard

Before, during and after the upcoming IEEE Test Week and its International Test Conference (Nov. 6-11 in Austin, Texas) a number of workshops, papers and meetings will offer a glimpse of the evolution of the IEEE 1149.1 Boundary Scan Standard. As it approaches its sixteenth birthday, the 1149.1 standard is morphing in two directions, both upward at the system level and downward toward the device level.

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New ScanWorks 3.7 adds NAND programming, STAPL conversion, other features

The soon-to-be-released version 3.7 of ScanWorks has several new capabilities, such as NAND flash programming and a conversion capability that will export some ScanWorks actions as STAPL operations, ready to run on any platform compatible with the EIA/JEDEC standard.

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ASSET helping to define test technology for PICMG’s TCA standards

Usually, standards groups for the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) primarily address electrical, mechanical and thermal requirements, not embedded test methodologies. But that’s just what two PICMG working groups are doing with the MicroTCA and AdvancedTCA standards. A senior application engineer for ASSET, Mike Westermeier, recently joined the MicroTCA subcommittee to assist in these efforts.

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New Examples Library offers shortcuts to functional code

A new Examples Library under ScanWorks’ Help—Maintenance Benefits pull-down menu item gives users the chance to streamline the development of test projects, test automation scripts and macros. The examples, which have been developed by ASSET’s field engineering and support department, as well as users, are generic and can form the basis for a new project, script or macro.

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Test & Measurement World interviews ASSET CEO

Relationships have been a key to ASSET’s success in the boundary-scan marketplace, according to an interview with Glenn Woppman, ASSET’s president and CEO, in the October issue of Test & Measurement World, one of the leading publications serving the test industry. Glenn shares his views on what the future holds for boundary-scan technology as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

Click here for part 1 of the interview

Click here for part 2 of the interview

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System-level boundary-scan test will highlight ASSET’s ITC and Productronica booths

System-level boundary-scan operations, both test and in-system configuration, will be highlighted in ASSET’s booth at the International Test Conference in Austin, Texas, Nov. 8-10 as well as Productronica the following week in Munich, Germany, Nov. 15-18.

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