ASSET's Board Bring-Up Solution Debugs Haswell
April 12, 2012. With new tools for the ASSET ScanWorks platform for embedded instruments, design engineers can structurally verify, functionally test, analyze performance margins, and debug boards based on the Intel microarchitecture codenamed Haswell within one unified software environment.
“Board bring-up is a process whereby prototype circuit boards are iteratively tested, validated, and debugged in preparation for volume manufacturing,” said Tim Caffee, ASSET's vice president of board validation. “These iterative prototype spins can take months or in some cases years. Because it integrates a suite of software-based tools in one environment, the ScanWorks platform's board bring-up solution can reduce the number of spins of a design and shorten each board spin cycle, greatly accelerating a product's time-to-money.”
Comprising boundary-scan, high-speed I/O, and processor-controlled debug and test technologies, the ScanWorks board bring-up solution provides a seamless framework for tracing the root cause of prototype defects.
“With the increasing complexity of new designs, design cycles can get longer and longer unless design engineers have better tools,” said Caffee. “It is critically important to get boards to volume manufacturing production as quickly as possible. When the board design and introduction cycle lengthens, products can miss the market window or be rendered obsolete by newer, more powerful chips.”
The new ScanWorks tools provide a software-based, cost-effective platform for board troubleshooting at all stages of prototype bring-up. ScanWorks boundary-scan test verifies the structural integrity of the circuit board assembly. ScanWorks processor-controlled debug and test reads all registers, memory, and I/O of the platform for hardware, firmware, and software troubleshooting. And ScanWorks HSIO validates the signal integrity on the high-speed memory and I/O buses on the design.
ScanWorks board bring-up will be available in the second quarter of 2012 from ASSET InterTech and its distributors. Pricing for a base level ScanWorks platform for embedded instruments begins at $12,000.
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