Framework to automate compliance testing

The combination of Tektronix instruments and the open nature of NI TestStand software gives customers a platform to rapidly characterise new products and bring them to market faster.

Tektronix is working on an automated framework designed for receiver, transmitter and interconnect compliance testing of high speed serial data standards using NI TestStand test management software from National Instruments.

NI TestStand provides an open and flexible development environment, providing a platform for Tektronix and other companies to create effective test solutions.

The combination of Tektronix instruments and the open nature of NI TestStand software gives customers a platform to rapidly characterise new products and bring them to market faster.

The increase in datarates is making design efforts even more challenging as signalling capabilities are being bound by physical limitations.

Technologies continue to emerge to address this challenge but added design complexity and constantly changing standards create even greater design challenges that can hinder time to market and increase development cost.

Several new serial databus architectures including PCI-Express, XAUI, RapidIO, HDMI and SATA provide an order of magnitude greater data throughput than possible only a few years ago.

With so much complexity and change, Tektronix will provide a test solution that will help it to bring new products to market quickly and provide clear benefits to customers.

"The combination of growing multi instrument test complexity and the need for measurement efficiency and speed are the primary catalysts for developing automated compliance test suites", says Lynne Camp, Vice President, Performance Plus Instruments, Tektronix.

"Customers want to reduce the time required for the mosaic of critical tests needed to achieve industry compliance".

"These companies desire an automated test suite that is error tolerant, uniform in implementation and that offers execution speeds an order of magnitude greater than that available today".

"We chose NI TestStand because of its reputation as the standard in test management software and because it provides an open and flexible platform to meet these requirements".

Tektronix will use NI TestStand as its test execution engine.

NI TestStand is designed to help engineers develop and deploy automated validation and manufacturing test systems.

By partnering with National Instruments and utilising a proven, open and extensible platform, Tektronix will be able to more rapidly bring automated compliance test modules to market.

Leveraging the modular architecture of NI TestStand, Tektronix will benefit from maximum test code reuse and simplified maintenance.

Customers will benefit from robust compliance test solutions for industry standards without the needing to develop one-off code sets.

"We're very pleased with Tektronix's decision to use NI TestStand for the development of its advanced automated compliance test suites", says John Pasquarette, Director of Software Marketing at National Instruments.

"This decision demonstrates the value of NI TestStand as a modular, COTS, test management platform".

"By leveraging the NI TestStand compatibility, our joint customers will be able to integrate the Tektronix compliance test suite into their existing test software deployments".

Automated compliance test software based on NI TestStand is in development.

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