Embedded and edge devices offer test opportunities
Prospective customers increasingly make measurements on high-performance signals that low-cost parts can handle.
-- Test & Measurement World, 7/1/2010 12:00:00 AM
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Two classes of applications are offering design-and-test challenges, even though they don't necessarily require the highest bandwidths, data rates, and memory depth. Those applications include embedded systems and edge devices, with the latter category including devices ranging from sensors to cellphones—ones, according to Greg Peters, VP and GM of the component test division of Agilent Technologies, that touch the real world, not servers confined to a back room. Peters, speaking at the International Microwave Symposium (IMS) on May 25, said he expects the number of such devices to grow geometrically.
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The Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) Silicon Valley held in April provided test companies an opportunity to present their offerings for the embedded-systems market. Tektronix highlighted its mixed-signal oscilloscopes and presented the results of a time-and-motion study it sponsored; the study indicated that engineers searching for runts and glitches when debugging designs performed typical debug tasks 53% faster when using Tektronix scopes, such as the MSO4000 mixed-signal oscilloscope (figure), compared with competitors' versions.
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LeCroy product marketing manager Dan Monopoli described the types of instruments and capabilities embedded-system designers are looking for. LeCroy customers can be divided into two camps, he said—those attending ESC, and those attending DesignCon. At ESC, customers look for instruments that can handle decoding for I2C and SPI signals. In contrast, DesignCon attendees are looking for high-bandwidth scopes that can help investigate signal-integrity issues on high-speed buses like PCI Express Gen 3. Products that LeCroy introduced at ESC included the ArbStudio AWG (arbitrary waveform generators) and LogicStudio 16 logic analyzer.
Agilent's Peters, speaking at IMS, cited a bifurcation of the electronic food chain with respect to test-equipment purchases: For some applications, ultra high performance is required, while for others, price/performance is key. Embedded applications would seem to fall in the latter category, but as Peters pointed out, dealing with real-world edge devices requires accurate modeling of nonlinear behavior, using, for example, Agilent's X-parameter technology.
Joel Woodward, a senior product manager at Agilent with responsibilities for marketing to the embedded design community, said, "A lot of times we think of embedded as a lagging industry, but embedded has wholeheartedly embraced the adoption of high-speed serial links." He said that if you purchase a modern FPGA, you essentially get high-speed serial I/O for free. "The wonderful thing about the computer industry is it will drive the price of advanced technology way, way, way down, so it becomes feasible for embedded teams to implement them [high-speed links] in their designs."
The good news for instrument makers is that prospective customers will increasingly need to make measurements on the high-performance signals that relatively low-cost parts can handle.
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