Linux works for test
In a recent interview, Anshul Jain of Tejas Networks discusses the capabilities of Linux-based test systems for manufacturing.
Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 9/1/2009 2:00:00 AM
Anshul Jain is assistant manager of test engineering at Tejas Networks. Based in Bangalore, India, Tejas Networks develops and manufactures optical networking switches. Jain is responsible for all test-engineering development, quality-assurance testing, and final deployment of Linux-based test systems for manufacturing. Martin Rowe conducted an e-mail interview with Jain about his work in Bangalore.
Q: What kinds of tests do your systems perform?
A: We have three test platforms. A parametric and data-path testing station is primarily a functional test platform that performs traffic testing at various SDH/SONET bit rates. We test with Gigabit Ethernet traffic and measure parameters such as frame sizes, frame rates, frame errors, and frame counts. Parametric testing includes line-card parameters such as output jitter, jitter tolerance, pulse mask, eye pattern and extinction ratios, optical spectral analysis, and return loss.
Our engineers use a power-supply test platform on the bench to test AC and DC power supplies that go into our systems. Tests include power-related measurement parameters such as load testing at various voltages. We also test for voltage-cutoff points—the lowest voltage that will keep our systems running.
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Q: Why did you choose to use Linux as your operating system?
A: We chose Linux as the test platform because of hardware costs, software costs, and support. We minimize hardware costs because Linux runs on systems with minimal resources. With Linux, we can run PCs that are three or four years old. Windows requires more resources to run our test systems, requiring more powerful PCs. Because Linux is free, we don’t need to purchase an operating-system license for every PC.
Q: What kind of support do you get for a free operating system?
A: We found that we can get good product support for Linux-based software. For example, LabView for Linux includes installers for GPIB and VISA protocols. These installers are very stable, which we need for extended manufacturing cycles. In addition, we successfully leverage the vast amount of knowledge available on open-source forums and communities.
We also run our software development, diagnostics, and FPGA design on Linux-based computers. As a side benefit, engineers were able to show management that Linux is a viable option for desktop users.
Q: What Linux tools do you use in addition to LabView?
A: We have standardized our test-deployment platforms on the Mandriva 2008 Spring and openSUSE 11.0 Linux distributions. Both are free and readily downloadable. Other than LabView, we use several open-source products for test development. The Linux-based tools include Subversion for source-code control. It integrates seamlessly with LabView and lets us perform distributed code development across several platforms.
We employ Linux shell programming scripts. Several of the scripts let contract manufacturers interface their inventory tracking databases to our LabView application. We’ve also created some report-generation programs based on OpenOffice for our test reports.
Because Linux is a very flexible operating system, we can use utilities such as mklivecd/draklive by Mandriva and Kiwi by openSUSE to build customized images that include VISA and GPIB instrument drivers. We can then load the images into our test stations for installing new systems and upgrades.
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