US 12,315,585 B2 · Automated test equipment comprising a plurality of communication interfaces to a device under test

Abstract

The automated test equipment is configured to establish communication, e.g. by uploading a program to the DUT using a first interface, such as a debug interface or a generic interface having access to the processing unit for external control. A typical use case of the first interface is debug access to the DUT, which typically requires limited data rates. In the case of the invention the first interface is an ATE access for test execution. The first interface configures the DUT to open a second interface running at much higher data rate, which is higher than the first interface, for additional communication. Additionally, the second interface may have extended capabilities compared to the first interface, such as presenting its own memory to the processing unit of the DUT as a normal system memory.

Claims18

Dependent claims

An automated test equipment (ATE) for testing a device under test (DUT), the automated test equipment comprising:

a first communications interface configured to communicatively couple to the DUT;
and
a second communications interface configured to communicatively couple to the DUT,
wherein the ATE is configured to upload a program to the DUT for execution by a processor of the DUT using the first communications interface, and
wherein the program is operable to configure the DUT to communicate with the ATE via the second communications interface, and
wherein further the second communications interface is operable to communicate at a higher data rate than the first communications interface,
wherein the ATE is configured to cause an invalidation of a cache of the DUT, and
wherein the ATE loads the program into the cache for execution by the DUT.

5 more elements

An automated test equipment for testing a device under test comprising:

a processor;
a memory that is shared with the device under test;
a first communications interface configured to communicatively couple the device under test to the processor of the automated test equipment;
and
a second communications interface configured to communicatively couple the device under test to the processor of the automated test equipment,
wherein the automated test equipment is configured to upload a program to the device under test using the first communications interface,
wherein the program is also operable to configure the device under test to communicate with the processor via the second communications interface,
wherein the second communications interface is operable to communicate at a higher data rate than a data rate of the first communications interface,
wherein the processor is configured to cause a processing unit of the device under test to execute a test program which is stored in the memory that is shared, and
wherein the test program initializes a memory range, onto which the memory range of the memory of the automated test equipment is mapped, and wherein an extension memory provided by the second communications interface appears to a processing unit of the device under test as a normal system memory.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Automated test equipment comprising a plurality of communication interfaces to a device under test

Life of this patent

Automated test equipment comprising a plurality of communication interfaces to a device under test

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18