Catching up with the real world: requirements for next-generation test instruments

This paper provides an overview of the key problems of open-architecture test in general, and digital test in particular. It then proposes some instrument features that would allow the test engineer to specify operation in terms more closely aligned with the test specification (UUT-centric test) rather than in terms more closely aligned with the instrument capabilities (instrument-centric test). These instrument features include: 1) Including pre-programmed functions based on common use, 2) Acknowledgement of the bus-structured trend in interfaces, 3) Close association of the protocol and functions with the instrument, 4) "Set and forget" protocol definition