[comp.lsi] Information about test equipment

karplus@terra.ucsc.edu (Kevin Karplus) (04/20/91)

We at UC Santa Cruz have just received a grant to purchase test
equipment for VLSI.  I have some ideas what I want (the grant budget
was based on a system that I think will meet my needs), but would like
to avoid making a $100,000 mistake.  If anyone knows anything about
medium-price test equipment (say $100,000 or less) for digital chips
in the 80MHz and above range, please let me know.

It would be useful if the tester could do Iddq testing on power and
ground pins, and I'd like to be able to present fairly long vectors at
real data rates of 80MHz and above.

Thanks for any help!

Kevin Karplus

jhahs@tessi.UUCP (Jeff Hahs) (04/24/91)

In article <14748@darkstar.ucsc.edu> karplus@terra.ucsc.edu (Kevin Karplus) writes:
>We at UC Santa Cruz have just received a grant to purchase test
>equipment for VLSI.  I have some ideas what I want (the grant budget
>was based on a system that I think will meet my needs), but would like
>to avoid making a $100,000 mistake.  If anyone knows anything about
>medium-price test equipment (say $100,000 or less) for digital chips
>in the 80MHz and above range, please let me know.

The leading contenders should be from IMS (now a subsidiary of Valid Logic Corp)
and HP (the 82000 series), with Credence (formerly ASIX) also a possibility.
Most other component testers I know of are significantly more expensive.

>It would be useful if the tester could do Iddq testing on power and
>ground pins, and I'd like to be able to present fairly long vectors at
>real data rates of 80MHz and above.

Also worry about how many pins you will be testing, and quantify "fairly long".
Also think about what you really need to be able to do at 80MHz - most lower-cost
testers "cheat" a bit on supported formats and format combinations to achieve the
higher pattern rates for the price.

>Thanks for any help!
>
>Kevin Karplus

My company specializes in linking testers of all sorts to the various commercial
EDA environments, and I am sure our local rep would be happy to supply details
if you are interested.  Good luck in your search - I would be interested in
hearing about your decision when you reach one.

Jeff Hahs - TSSI

-- 
Jeff Hahs
Test Systems Strategies, Inc., 8205 S.W. Creekside Place, Beaverton OR  97005
Uucp: ...!{tektronix,sequent,reed}!tessi!jhahs           AT&T: (503) 643-9281