ASSET ScanWorks named Best in Test finalist for high-speed memory bus validation toolkit

A new toolkit for the ScanWorks platform that validates the connectivity between next-generation Intel processors and high-speed DDR3 memory was named a finalist in the design-for-test and boundary scan category. The 2011 Best in Test awards recognize the outstanding validation and test products introduced during the previous year.

This prestigious recognition follows on the heels of last year's Best in Test awards when ScanWorks had two products named as finalists, said Glenn Woppman, president and CEO of ASSET. As every company does, we are reacting to the demand that we see present in the market. The ScanWorks memory validation toolkit is just one more indication of the momentum that's building behind the deployment of embedded instrumentation in non-intrusive validation and test applications. Test and validation engineers are quickly realizing the value of the instruments that are embedded in their chips, circuit boards and systems.

The ScanWorks DDR3 memory toolkit will verify the performance of the bus that connects DDR3 memory devices to Intel's processors based on the next-generation micro-architecture codenamed Sandy Bridge. ASSET and Intel have been collaborating on validation and test tools that take advantage of Intel's embedded instrumentation technology, Intel Interconnect Built-In Self Test (Intel IBIST). Intel has been placing Intel IBIST into its advanced processors and chipsets to facilitate validation, test and debug applications.

As the speeds of the buses connecting these devices on a circuit board accelerate dramatically, finding new ways to ensure the quality of these links and the interoperability of the chips is important to Intel, said Geof Findley, of Intel's Platform Memory Operations (PMO) Ecosystem Management. Thus, Intel and ASSET have collaborated to expand the deployment of Intel IBIST in validation use at memory suppliers. In this way, memory suppliers will be able to offer additional value to our mutual customers.