TABLE OF CONTENTS This chapter provides an introduction to common instrument interfaces and VLSI testing. Technical details of two matured standards such as the IEEE-488 interface system and the VME bus extension for instrumentation (VXIbus) are given, along with an insight into the evolution of the standards and the future trends.
The IEEE-488 interface system, more commonly known as the general purpose interface bus (GPIB), has been carefully designed to integrate several instruments, together with a computer or a dedicated instrument controller, to simplify the automated measurement process. The bus allows a two-way communication between the controller or the computer with the instruments on the test setup and assists the test engineer in the design and implementation of automatic test equipment (ATE). The particular design philosophy and the interface system allow the necessary flexibility to accommodate different types of electronic instruments manufactured by different manufacturers. The IEEE-488 interface is a digital system, which allows up to 15 instruments or devices to communicate with each other under the control of a master unit or a controller. The devices and instruments are connected together in parallel using specially designed connectors and a cable system referred to as a bus . The supervision of the integrated test setup is provided by the master unit called the controller which is usually a personal computer or a dedicated bus controller. The software needed to control the test setup can be easily written using the popular computer languages. In the past, languages like BASIC...
