Can you make one size fit all? [synthetic instrument]

With the contract award of the ARGCS (agile rapid global combat support) ACTD (advanced concept technology demonstration) last September, the DoD is making great advances toward a more cost efficient and coordinated military support organization. One attribute of ARGCS is to develop and demonstrate a synthetic instrument as a possible replacement of the growing plethora of general-purpose and customized test equipment currently deployed in the military´s most widely used automatic test systems (ATS). This paper describes an ideal synthetic instrument (SI), technology trends that make the ideal SI possible, trade-offs instrument manufacturers are making based on available technology, ramifications to test systems integrators and users based on these trade-offs.