ScanWorks boosts its support for embedded instruments
ASSET has expanded ScanWorks by adding signal integrity analysis applications that support Intel’s next-generation embedded instrumentation technology, Intel® IBIST (Interconnect Built In Self Test).
 IBIST is anticipated to provide a more effective and much less costly means of validating server platforms which feature high-speed buses, such as PCI Express (PCIe), that are capable of billions of data transfers per second. Intel recently announced that IBIST technology has been embedded into the most recent generations of some of its leading server and workstation platform chipsets, including the 5300 and 7300 Series Quad-Core Intel Xeon® processor-based platforms. ScanWorks will also support Intel’s next-generation Nehalem processor-based platforms with the Intel QuickPath interconnect architecture.
 “Over the last three years, we have evolved ScanWorks to the point where it brings considerable value-added functionality in its role as an easy-to-use design validation, test and debug tool for Intel’s embedded instrumentation,” said Tim Caffee, ASSET’s vice president for design validation. “Embedded instrumentation like Intel’s IBIST technology is particularly critical these days because the processing speeds and data transfer speeds of computers and other electronic systems have increased so dramatically. At the high speeds that systems are reaching today, the effectiveness of traditional methods of test and design validation, which rely on physically probing circuit boards, is significantly diminished.”
 “As the industry’s demand for high-speed serial signal architectures continues to grow, we expect to see a growing dependency on IBIST for validating and testing Intel technology,” said Lorie Wigle, Intel’s marketing director of server software and technology initiatives.
The ScanWorks environment with support for IBIST consists of software applications for validating and analyzing signal integrity on buses through margining and bit error ratio testing (BERT) techniques. ScanWorks interfaces to embedded instruments to validate board-level and system-level designs that feature high-speed buses such as PCI Express, Intel’s QuickPath interconnect and others. In addition, ScanWorks features a suite of fault diagnostic tools.
IBIST technology is a design validation and test architecture embedded into many of Intel’s processors to enable chip-to-chip interconnect testing and design validation of high-speed buses on a printed circuit board. IBIST leverages the boundary-scan IEEE 1149.1 specification as the hardware and software communication methodology for accessing and controlling its embedded on-chip capabilities. |
