The role of test instrumentation in integrated diagnostics and common testers

The critical factors in test equipment commonality do not only lie in the test equipment. The areas that affect tester commonality between diagnostic levels include the instrument hardware environment and the instrument programming environment. The instrument hardware and programming environments and the role that instrumentation can play in helping to achieve test system commonality are studied. The aspects of commonality that are affected by test equipment, the capabilities and limitations of the instrument environment, and the criteria affecting these abilities, including the differences between integrated diagnostics and common testers approaches, are examined