Processor-Controlled Test

Functional Test for boards and systems

Processor-Controlled Test, goes beyond any JTAG boundary scan tool by testing your boards at CPU operational speed. Test coverage is thus increased, along with the confidence that your boards will be functional at the end of the line.
 

What is MicroMaster?

MicroMaster is a functional test and debug solution for assembled boards (PCB's) that are controlled by a processor. It is available in fixtured or stand-alone units.

MicroMaster is used for in-line testing during high-volume board assembly by the world's largest board manufacturers. It is also widely used for manufacturing debug, field-return repairs, Fast Flash Programming and board development debug.

MicroMaster offers :

MicroMaster can extend the test coverage provided by ICT, MDA and JTAG testers. MicroMaster overcomes test access problems in structural test and adds full functional test.

MicroMaster provides extensive fault diagnostics, even on dead boards. Other functional test systems give little or no feedback unless a large part of the board's components are working.

MicroMaster's fully integrated I/O emulation cards eliminate the need for unwieldy "rack-and-stack" instrumentation and real peripheral devices. Test times are reduced and diagnostic feedback is greatly improved.

Just some examples of MicroMaster applications: PC Motherboards, Embedded Boards, PDA's & SmartPhones, Networking & Comms (SBC's).

• ARM7 , ARM9 and Texas Instruments TI OMAP™ processors
• AMD Duron™ (Socket-A)
• AMD Athlon™ (Socket-A)
• AMD Athlon™ 64
• AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core
• AMD Athlon™ 64 FX
• Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64
• Mobile AMD Athlon™ XP-M
• AMD Opteron™
• Dual Core AMD® Opteron™
• AMD Sempron™
• Mobile AMD Sempron™
• AMD Turion™ Mobile Technology
• Freescale™ PowerPC™ 740/745/750/755
• Freescale™ PowerPC™ 603e (200-300 MHz)
• Freescale™ PowerPC™ 7400/7410/7450/7455/7457, etc.
• Freescale™ PowerPC™ 8240
• IBM® PowerPC™ 750 DD2/DD3
• IBM® PowerPC™ 750 FX DD1/DD2
• Intel® Pentium® M processors (Intel® Centrino™ Mobile Technology component)
• Intel® Pentium® D processor
• Intel® Celeron® (later versions)
• Intel® Celeron® M
• Intel® Celeron® D
• Intel® Centrino® Duo
• Intel® Core™ processor families (all)
• Intel® Core™ 2 processor families (all)
• Intel® Atom ™ processor
• Intel® Centrino Atom ™ processor 
• Next Generation Intel® microarchitecture (Nehalem) processors
• Intel® EP80579 Integrated Process Product Line (Tolapai)
• Freescale™ PowerPC™ 5xx Family
• Freescale™ PowerPC™ 8xx Family
• Freescale™ 68HC12
• Freescale™ ColdFire® processors, including the following families:
• MCF548x, MCF547x, MCF540x, MCF530x, MCF528x, MCF527x, MCF524x, MCF523x, MCF521x, MCF520x.
• Freescale™ 68K MC68331, MC68332, MC68336, MC68340, MC68360, MC68F375, MC

Board Debug Solutions

MicroMaster is available in stand-alone units, without fixturing, for board development and field returns debug. Features include:

• Automatic fault diagnosis, even for dead boards - turn your bone-pile boards into financial assets.
• Detailed component-level diagnostics facilitate less skilled debug and repair.
• Rapid fault location - full diagnosis in seconds.
• Fast and easy to connect to UUT
• Supplied with library of pre-programmed tests, such as:
• Start / Stop Processor
•  
• Read / Write Memory
• Fill / Check Memory
• Read / Write I/O
• RAM Test (SRAM, DRAM, SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, RAMBus...)
• ROM CRC/Checksum
• Breakpoints
• Run UUT

The ATG tool captures UUT boot and initialization sequences, automatically converting these into test scripts.

• Supports wide range of processors - low cost upgrades for new varieties.
• Open architecture - easy to integrate 3rd party instrumentation, test executives and programming languages.
• Flash memory programming is included.

Manufacturing Test Solutions

MicroMaster solutions can be purpose-built to suit your needs. Our customers include the world's largest board manufacturers, so high-volume test at assembly line speeds using MicroMaster test stations is already well-established.

Examples of MicroMaster fixtured solutions include:

• low-cost manual load and CPU engagement systems.
• semi-automated systems with automated engagement of external I/O connectors and "gold" standard components.
• fully-automated systems for in-line testing, incorporating board conveyors.

The features and benefits of MicroMaster Manufacturing Test Solutions include:

• Complete functional test in 1-2 minutes.
• High test coverage and full diagnostics.
• Only 5-10 test access points required, so test access for mobile products isn't a problem.
• Can increase coverage provided by ICT, MDA or Boundary Scan.
• Adds full functional testing to ICT, MDA and Boundary Scan.
• Highly automated - even video signals and LCD output can be checked without operator intervention.

The ATG tool captures UUT boot and initialization sequences, automatically converting these into test scripts.

Features:

• Full database logging and statistical analysis.
• Flash device programming is also supported.
• Supplied with a wide range of pre-programmed tests.

Completely open architecture - supports 3rd party instrumentation, test executives and programming languages:

• Test executives: National Instruments™ TestStand™ or any Microsoft® Windows®-based test executive.
• Programming languages: C, C++, Microsoft® Visual Basic®, Microsoft® Visual C++®, National Instruments™ CVI™

Mobile & Consumer applications

PC's & Data Storage

The majority of notebooks, desktops, servers, and intelligent data storage systems use Intel® Pentium® family processors. MicroMaster supports all of these, along with AMD®-based boards.
See this document for a PC board test example.

PDA's & Smart Phones

We have support for the Intel® XScale™ Architecture processors, Freescale™, ARM® and TI OMAP™ processors used in many PDA's and Smart Phones.
See this document for a PDA / Smart Phone test example.

Industrial applications

Telecoms & Networking

Telecoms and Networking boards often carry Freescale™ or Intel® XScale™ processors. The MicroMaster product range supports these processors.
See this document for a PDA / Smart Phone test example.

Avionics, Automotive & Industrial

Embedded controllers used in avionics, automotive and industrial applications carry a wide range of microprocessors and microcontrollers. MicroMaster provides support for the majority of these devices.
See this document for a PDA / Smart Phone test example.

Interposers

Interposer concept

MicroMaster can be connected to the Unit Under Test (UUT) in a variety of ways. If the UUT doesn't have an on-board e-JTAG header, but the CPU is socketed, an interposer can be placed between the CPU and socket to provide access to the e-JTAG lines. The standard JTAG header on the interposer is then connected to the processor control POD.

Interposers are available for the following processors:

• Intel® Pentium® processors
• Intel® Pentium® PRO processors
• Intel® Pentium® II / III processors
• Intel® Pentium® II Xeon™ / III Xeon™ processors
• Intel® Celeron® processors
• Intel® Pentium® 4
• Intel® Pentium® M processors
• Intel® Xeon™ processors
• AMD® Athlon™ / Duron™ processors

In some cases there is more than one interposer for a specific processor type, due to pin or package changes in later versions. Please check the interposer specifications in the parts list below.

Modular I/O Emulation Unit

This modular I/O Emulation Unit can be used in conjunction with our Manufacturing Test and Hardware Debug Solutions for processor-based boards. It allows I/O ports on the unit under test to be functionally tested, without the need to attach real devices. Test execution is accelerated with greater diagnostic resolution.

Cards available for the modular I/O Emulation Unit:

• Keyboard / Mouse (3 ports)
• USB (4 ports)
• Serial (2 ports) & IrDA (1 port)
• Parallel (1 port)
• Ethernet LAN (1 port) / IEEE 1394 - Firewire (2 ports)
• SCSI (1 port)
• IDE (1 port)
• Video (1 port - RGB voltage level checks; V-Sync and H-Sync frequency checks)
• LCD (1 port - high speed serial line checks, inc. shorts, opens; V-Sync and H-Sync frequency checks)
• Audio (3 stereo mic outputs, driven by tone generator; 1 stereo line input; 1 stereo speaker input; 1 mono I/O)
• Modem - Line Simulator (1 port - simulates ring voltage, dial tones, line off hook, etc.)
• Battery Emulator (1 port - includes power supply and emulates a battery in various states, e.g. on charge, discharge, AC adapter plugged in/out, individual cell status, temperature, etc.)
• Switch Card (16 x MOSFET's < 1.1A @ 60VDC, 1 x DPDT Relay < 4A @ 250VAC or 30VDC)
• GPIO (1 port - 5 x 8-bit bi-directional lines)
• Analog/Digital (1 port - 8 programmable DAC output channels; 12 programmable ADC input channels with selectable voltages ranging between +/- 5V and +/- 25V; 4 programmable ADC input channels with selectable 2V, 4V ranges and active gain stage)
• Prototyping Card (PTH matrix, CPLD 64 I/O lines)

A range of test programs and application notes is available for use with the I/O Emulation Unit cards.

Flash Programming

Standard Flash Programming

MicroMaster has a built-in Flash Programming utility, which is shown in the screen shot below. This utility supports a wide range of flash device types. Either the full flash device, or specific sectors can be programmed from an image file. Flash can be verified, and the contents of a known-good flash can be copied to a file for use in programming other flash devices.

Fast Flash Programming

MicroMaster Fast Flash Programming is an alternative to the standard Flash Programming function provided in the Interactive mode of the Test Toolkit software. Fast Flash Programming offers significant speed increases for certain processor types. Depending on the type of flash and the way it is implemented on the board, programming times can be less than 10 seconds per megabyte. 

Processor types currently supported by the Fast Flash Programming feature are: Freescale™ PowerPC™ 7447, 7447A, 7450, 7455 (Apollo 2.0 and 3.0), 7457 Freescale™ PowerQUICC™ 8540, 8541, 8543, 8545, 8547, 8548, 8555, 8560 Intel® Pentium®, Celeron® and Xeon™ processor families. 

The Fast Flash Programming feature is more suited to board manufacture and high volume firmware upgrades because the user needs to develop a relatively simple, flash-specific programming algorithm in assembly language and a short MicroMaster test script. However, the time and cost saved in manufacturing far out-weighs the program development effort. 

For a full description of the Fast Flash Programming feature, download Application Note #9.