External instruments down but not out

Embedded instruments have been in the news lately, most recently when Asset InterTech announced that it had hired DFx (design for whatever) expert Al Crouch from Verigy (which had in turn acquired Crouch’s service when it acquired Inovys). The Asset initiative followed a February 21 EDN cover story “As SOCs grow, test-and-measurement instruments move on-chip” by Ron Wilson and my own March 20 response (“External instruments here to stay”).

Crouch’s hiring (Asset also picked up John Potter, former principal automation architect at Inovys) indicates an ongoing interest in Internal JTAG (IJTAG), which Asset CEO Glenn Woppman articulated during an interview at the 2006 International Test Conference. (That prompted commentary from CJ Clark of Intellitech and further commentary from Woppman.)

In a press release announcing the hiring of Crouch and Potter, Woppman stated, “Electronics manufacturers are realizing that the external design validation, test and debug technologies which they have now are simply running out of gas. As a result, chip vendors as well as the system manufacturers themselves are embedding instruments into silicon.”

In a follow-up conversation, he concurred with me, however, that external instruments continue to have a role to play.