September 2, 2008

Teradyne to acquire Eagle Test Systems
Teradyne and Eagle Test Systems today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement under which Teradyne will acquire Eagle Test. Under the terms of the agreement, Eagle Test shareholders will receive $15.65 per share in cash. The aggregate purchase price is expected to be approximately $250 million. Read More

A D V E R T I S E M E N T New Strategies for Validating RF Receiver Performance This webcast will discuss how it is possible to accurately emulate signal impairment and perform in-depth diagnostics in a lab setting. It will also demonstrate the benefits of record and playback as a valuable asset in reducing time-to-quality for RF products. Click here

TI touts support for IEEE 1149.7 standard
Texas Instruments, a member of the IEEE11.9.7 working group, announced that it is actively supporting the ratification of IEEE 1149.7, a new 2-pin test and debug interface standard that employs half the number of pins of the IEEE 1149.1 technology. Read More

iNEMI addresses board quality
The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) consortium of companies has initiated three projects intended to help manufacturers improve the quality of printed-circuit boards (PCBs). Read More

Test Ideas: DPGA conditions signals with negative time constant
Digitally programmable gain amplifiers (DPGAs) amplify or attenuate analog signals, which maximizes an ADC's dynamic range. Instead of using a monolithic DPGA, you can use two op amps and three analog switches to build a DPGA that is based on negative time constants. Read More

Seica teams with Corelis for integrated test system
Seica has partnered with Corelis to deliver and support an integrated test system based on Seica's Pilot flying probe system and Corelis' ScanExpress boundary-scan JTAG test tools. Read More

A D V E R T I S E M E N T Test Applications Using LXI Instruments Why use LXI Instruments to build test systems? What can you do with LXI that saves me money, time, and provides unique solutions? This webcast presentation will guide you through these topics and more. Click here

Accellera updates Verilog-AMS standard
Accellera reports that its board of directors and technical committee members have approved a new version of the Verilog-analog mixed-signal standard covering design and simulation. Read More

Asset's ScanWorks supports Avago ASICs
Asset InterTech has announced that it has reached an agreement under which ScanWorks, the company's platform for open embedded instrumentation tools, will support Avago Technologies' embedded-instrumentation technology for selected ASICs that comply with Intel IBIST technology. Read More

New challenge questions posted for September
Answer a challenge question correctly, and you could be eligible to win a prize.

Oscilloscope Challenge:
Question: What is the relationship between an oscilloscope and a time-domain reflectometer, and how can either or both be used to troubleshoot serial buses?
Prize: TomTom ONE GPS
Sponsor: Yokogawa

Data-Acquisition Challenge:
Question: Which type of sensor needs no excitation voltage or current, thus no external power source?
Prizes: Three $100 American Express gift cards (three winners of $100 each)
Sponsor: Data Translation

Go to the Challenge Page

An RFIC for the world
For our September cover story, we visited BitWave Semiconductor to learn how the company's engineers test a software-defined radio IC that supports multiple RF wireless standards. Another feature explains how you can use a function generator and an oscilloscope to measure gain and phase shift versus frequency in a power supply's control loop. Plus, the issue also includes the PXI Test Report. Read it today.

Industry calendar of events
Upcoming events include the International Test Conference (October) and Electronica (November). For more information about these and other test-related events, visit our online calendar.