US 6,311,149 B1Granted

Reconfigurable test system

AssigneeNational Instruments Corporation

InventorsArthur Ryan, Hugo Andrade

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Abstract

A reconfigurable test system including a host computer coupled to a reconfigurable test instrument. The reconfigurable test instrument includes reconfigurable hardware—i.e. a reconfigurable hardware module with one or more programmable elements such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays for realizing an arbitrary hardware architecture and a reconfigurable front end with programmable transceivers for interfacing with any desired physical medium—and optionally, an embedded processor. A user specifies system features with a software configuration utility which directs a component selector to select a set of software modules and hardware configuration files from a series of libraries. The modules are embedded in a host software driver or downloaded for execution on the embedded CPU. The configuration files are downloaded to the reconfigurable hardware. The entire selection process is performed in real-time and can be changed whenever the user deems necessary. Alternatively, the user may create a graphical program in a graphical programming environment and compile the program into various software modules and configuration files for host execution, embedded processor execution, or programming the reconfigurable hardware.

Claims39

Dependent claims

A reconfigurable test system comprising:

a computer system which includes a host CPU and host memory, wherein the host memory stores a hardware architecture library, a driver component library, a configuration utility, and a software driver, wherein the hardware architecture library comprises a plurality of hardware architecture files, wherein the driver component library comprises a plurality of software driver modules;
an instrument coupled to the computer system, wherein the instrument includes a reconfigurable hardware module, wherein the instrument also includes a reconfigurable front end, wherein the reconfigurable front end includes at least one programmable transceiver;
wherein the host CPU is configured to execute the configuration utility, wherein the configuration utility receives user input to configure the reconfigurable test system, wherein said user input determines selection of a first hardware architecture file from the hardware architecture library, wherein said user input also determines selection of one or more software driver modules to be incorporated into said software driver;
wherein, in response to said user input, the host CPU is operable to download the first hardware architecture file to the reconfigurable hardware module, and wherein the host CPU is further operable to install the selected one or more software driver modules into the software driver to configure the test system;
wherein, in response to said user input, the host CPU is operable to download a front end configuration to the reconfigurable front end, wherein the front end configuration is operable to configure the at least one programmable transceiver.

2 more elements

A method for configuring a reconfigurable test system, wherein the reconfigurable test system includes a host computer and an instrument coupled to the host computer, wherein the instrument is operable to be coupled to a unit under test (UUT), wherein the instrument includes a reconfigurable hardware module, the method comprising:

receiving configuration information from a user;
selecting one or more driver software modules from a software component library in response to said configuration information, wherein said software component library includes protocol driver modules which encode a plurality of telecommunication protocols, wherein said configuration information indicates a selection of a first telecommunication protocol, wherein said selecting one or more driver software modules includes selecting one of said protocol driver modules which corresponds to said first telecommunication protocol;
selecting a hardware architecture file from a hardware architecture library in response to said configuration information;
registering the selected one or more driver software modules into the software driver;
and
downloading the selected hardware architecture file to the reconfigurable hardware module;
wherein said registering the selected one or more driver software modules and said downloading the selected hardware architecture file operate to configure the test system.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/229,695Filed 13 Jan 1999 · continuation in part
Priority: 18 Aug 1997
Granted: 30 Oct 2001
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification4 codes

G06F 11/2294
Detection or location of defective computer hardware by testing during standby operation or during idle time, e.g. start-up testing: by remote test
G06F 11/2733
Tester hardware, i.e. output processing circuits: test interface between tester and unit under test
G06F 30/34
Circuit design: for reconfigurable circuits, e.g. field programmable gate arrays [FPGA] or programmable logic devices [PLD]
G06F
Computing and data processing