GOEPEL electronic supports Picochip in testing next generation ’small cell’ baseband chips

Picochip is the leading company in the femtocell space. The target of the cooperation with Picochip was to support innovative applications of its new femtocell devices with the latest test strategies, explains Karl Miles, Manager (UK & Ireland) with GOEPEL electronics Ltd. “We achieved this goal with the release of our latest VarioTAP IP. Picochip’s customers can utilise not only our JTAG/Boundary Scan capability but also our emulation capability for testing and programming in a fully integrated solution starting at the design stage and through the product cycle to production. This allows them to accelerate test development and get their innovative products to market faster and more cost-effectively.

Our SoC products are changing the way carriers build their HSPA and LTE networks, says Jackie Barker, VP Operations for Picochip. “GOEPEL electronic’s VarioTAP test strategy – developed specifically for our chips – makes an important contribution to accelerating transfer from design-ins to production and to guarantee the required test quality. Thanks to this, we were able to test and bring-up the PC500 in an extremely efficient manner.

The PC500 is the latest device from Picochip and is a high-performance baseband processor designed especially for ‘small cell’ systems. It supports both FDD and TDD versions of LTE as well as dual-mode with HSPA.

VarioTAP converts this processor, via the standard debug port, to a native design embedded test and programming controller. In addition to Boundary Scan, the strategy known as processor emulation test (PET) is currently the most modern method in the area of embedded test access technologies and enables a functional at-speed test of chips, boards and complete systems.