This week Intel®
advanced embedded instrumentation a few steps – actually, a few leaps forward –
with its announcement of Intel® Silicon View Technology (Intel SVT). And
ScanWorks became the only tools platform to support all three pillars of Intel
SVT: platform debug, electrical validation and board manufacturing testing.
There are a few ICT testers that support one or two of the pillars, but not all
three, as ScanWorks does.
Why is this a big deal?
Intel SVT is the
chip company’s new validation, debug and test technology which is being
embedded into all of its advanced processors and chipsets. And why is Intel
devoting on-chip resources to debug, validation and test? Bottom line is Intel
wants engineers to design in its chips and ScanWorks tools with Intel SVT
enables those engineers with robust debug, validation, and test tools to ensure that high-quality board designs can be achieved. Intel sees the handwriting on the
wall. The speed and complexity of technology today has reached the point where
embedded instrumentation is the most effective and efficient debug and test
method.
Essentially, Intel
SVT is an on-chip DFx (design for debug, test or validation) set of
capabilities that addresses the challenges designers and manufacturers must
overcome when faced with shorter development cycles, shrinking form-factors and
greater performance expectations in tighter power envelopes. Intel SVT is a key
Intel strategy to support embedded instruments.
Because of our nine-year
collaboration with Intel as a third-party solutions provider, ScanWorks was
able to support all of Intel SVT immediately. Working alongside Intel to
anticipate the needs of designers and manufacturers has served us well with
regards to supporting Intel SVT. Over the years, the combination of ScanWorks
tools and Intel’s embedded capabilities has created a very rich environment
wherein engineers can quickly debug, validate and test a platform’s operations
while diagnosing problem areas.
Specifically, ScanWorks High-Speed I/O (HSIO) tools work
with the Intel SVT electrical validation capabilities to measure and optimize
operational timing and voltage margins on high-speed data links and buses such
as Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI), PCI Express, Direct Media Interface
(DMI) and the DDR3/4 memory bus, all of which terminate in the processor or chipset.
ScanWorks functions interactively with Intel SVT to investigate the root causes
of low operating margins on these buses. In a board manufacturing test setting,
ScanWorks Boundary-Scan Test (BST) and Processor-Controlled Test (PCT) function
with Intel SVT to test and diagnose both structural and at-speed defects. Intel
SVT and ScanWorks offer improved diagnostics by enabling at-speed tests for
high-speed interfaces, thereby reducing dependencies on board functional test
and providing test cost reduction opportunities. In addition, we recently took our
first strategic steps into the area of platform debug via JTAG-based software
and BIOS debug tools when we became a reseller of the Intel Platform Debug Tool
(PDT).
For the full news release on ScanWorks support for Intel
SVT, click here.
