News Briefs
Staff -- Test & Measurement World, 12/1/2007 2:00:00 AM
Teradyne to acquire Nextest
Teradyne and Nextest Systems have announced that they have reached an agreement under which Teradyne will acquire Nextest. As a result of the acquisition, Teradyne will expand its served market into the flash-memory test segment, estimated to be more than $700 million in 2006. Of Nextest’s $95.8 million in revenue in calendar year 2006, flash-memory tester sales totaled about $80 million.
Under terms of the agreement approved by both boards of directors, Teradyne will pay $20 per share in cash for all the outstanding shares of Nextest. The aggregate purchase price is expected to be approximately $325 million.
“Nextest brings us a solid flash memory test product line, plus a very capable development and technical support organization,” said Michael Bradley, president and CEO of Teradyne. “Their growing presence in the flash memory test market provides a strong addition to our system-on-chip product offerings. This is one of the few business combinations in the test market where customers get products that are so complementary. Nextest’s Magnum product line will be backed by Teradyne’s global customer support team and will give us a powerful growth engine in the coming years.”
Upon the closing of the agreement, which is expected in the first quarter of 2008, Nextest will be run as a business unit within Teradyne’s Semiconductor Test Division. www.teradyne.com.
Acquisitions abound in test industry
In addition to Teradyne’s acquisition of Nextest Systems (see above), two other major test-company acquisitions were announced in December. First, boundary-scan vendor Asset InterTech announced that it has acquired International Test Technologies (ITT) of County Donegal, Ireland, a supplier of processor emulation technology.
Asset and ITT have had a strategic arrangement for the last three years, during which time they have worked together on product development and marketing. Technologies from the two companies have been integrated into a test system called ScanWorks Extended JTAG Coverage, which combines the functionality of Asset’s ScanWorks JTAG structural test system with ITT’s μMaster functional test platform.
“With our integrated product platform, we’ve been able to offer users more test coverage than they could achieve with either ScanWorks or ITT’s μMaster on its own,” said Glenn Woppman, president and CEO of Asset. “Now, as we move forward as one company, we will take the expertise we’ve acquired together and apply it in emerging areas like embedded test functionality and instrumentation, as well as design validation of high-speed serial buses. “The terms of the acquisition agreement were not disclosed. www.asset-intertech.com.
In another surprising announcement, Verigy and Inovys reported that they have signed a definitive agreement for Verigy to acquire Inovys. Financial details were not disclosed.
The acquisition enables Verigy to provide an integrated time-to-yield offering for semiconductor manufacturers. Inovys’ products bridge the gap between electronic design automation (EDA) and test, providing a path between design and production.
“Time-to-entitled-yield becomes a critical metric that places the focus squarely on test,” said Keith Barnes, chairman, CEO, and president of Verigy. “Verigy’s production workhorse V93000 system combined with Inovys’ design-for-test and design-for-manufacturing tools have demonstrated significant time-to-yield value for Verigy customers. Inovys’ and Verigy’s solid track records for technology innovation, quality products, and superb customer service will allow us to raise the bar in delivering world-class solutions to the industry.” www.verigy.com.
High-speed Ethernet gains IEEE designation
In early December, the IEEE officially established a designation for the planned 100-Gbps Ethernet communications standard: 802.3ba. With the approval of IEEE P802.3ba, the 802.3 Higher Speed Study Group will become the IEEE P802.3ba HSE Task Force and will develop a standard covering both a 100-Gbps and a 40-Gbps Ethernet interface. The specifications are expected to be ready in 2010. (For more on P802.3ba, see "100-Gbps Ethernet is coming" ) www.ieee802.org/3/ba.
JTAG platform tests ARM-based PCBs
Intellitech has announced its new PT100 Pro test platform for testing printed-circuit boards (PCBs) with processors based on ARM architectures. The PT100 Pro enables customers to reduce test costs and increase fault coverage by combining mixed-signal test, concurrent IEEE 1149.1 (JTAG) test, and CPU emulation-based functional tests in a single platform for testing up to 32 PCBs at a time.
The PT100 Pro is based on Intellitech’s PT100 and its patented CJTAG (concurrent JTAG) technology, which enables massive concurrent JTAG-based test and emulation. The concurrent ARM-based emulation test support enables the tester to go beyond boundary-scan stuck-at faults to include at-speed cluster testing of all of the PCB components, including non-1149.1 devices, on a single tester platform. Power, mixed-signal, and analog testing are achieved through the PT100 Pro’s built-in PXI instruments, power supplies, and relays.
The PT100 Pro supports up to 32 JTAG controller ports and up to 1870 analog/digital test pins with a pneumatic- or vacuum-based fixture interface. It includes a PXI chassis and measurement block, dual programmable power supplies, an integrated dual-core Pentium-based computer with RAID drive, a touch-screen monitor, a lockable keyboard, a bar-code scanner, and Intellitech’s ScanExecutive production test software.
Price range: $45,000–$80,000. Intellitech, www.intellitech.com.
Software diagnoses signal anomalies
Version 5 of the M1 oscilloscope software from Amherst Systems is designed to automatically detect signal anomalies. A feature called “Hidden Anomaly Location” (HAL) helps you find signal problems such as metastability, ringing, and crosstalk using a knowledge base.
The M1 HAL feature analyzes waveform data, looking for signal anomalies. When it finds a signal problem, it guides you to the waveform integrity knowledge base where you can use “agents” that provide technical descriptions of the problem as well as possible solutions. The knowledge base, which is included in the M1 software, is also available online where oscilloscope users can add their own troubleshooting stories and solutions to problems (www.amherst-systems.com/wikb/home-4.htm). Amherst Systems provides updates to M1 subscribers every 8 to 10 weeks; the updates will include the latest pages of the knowledge base for users who don’t have access to the online version.
M1 Oscilloscope Tools software works with instruments from Agilent, LeCroy, Tektronix, and Yokogawa. It can control the instruments to get data, or it can read stored data files offline.
Subscription price: $995 to $7995. Amherst Systems, www.m1ot.com.
Calendar
Optical Fiber Communication Conference/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference, February 24–28. San Diego, CA. Managed by the Optical Society of America, www.ofcnfoec.org.
Measurement Science Conference, March 10–14, Anaheim, CA. Sponsored by the Measurement Science Conference, www.msc-conf.com.
APEX and IPC Printed Circuits Expo, March 29–April 3, Las Vegas, NV. Sponsored by IPC, www.goipcshows.org.
See our complete calendar at www.tmworld.com/events.
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