Future technology thrusts for ABBET standardization

For the past four years a subcommittee has been working on a set of component standards under the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Project Authorization Request (PAR) 1226 to develop a set of standards under the name Ada Based Environment for Test (ABET). In November 1992 the name was changed to A Broad Based Environment for Test (ABBET) reflecting a much larger charter. ABBET is a base standard as well as a combination of component standards. The ABBET committee has spent a considerable amount of effort in adapting the standard test program set (TPS) language from a descriptive language of the Abbreviated Test Language for All Systems (ATLAS) to the programming language of Ada. It has defined an interface in a standard language that can be compiled using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) compilers. The committee has also defined interfaces at lower levels that may be used individually or in combination in automated test systems (ATS). This paper explores some of the areas where future ABBET standardization effort should be placed to benefit the automated test community. These areas include product description, test strategies as well as test object models and a graphical user interface for test objects