ATG test station

Claim 1

Apparatus for integrating test program sets for digital circuit boards, the test program sets being output by an automatic test program generation system (ATG), comprising: an ATG host computer which includes means for generating test programs; a general purpose personal computer connected to the ATG host computer for receiving program sets output by the host computer, said general purpose computer including means for running and debugging said ATG test programs provided by the ATG host computer; a basic test unit connected to the general purpose personal computer for generating test patterns in response to running of said test programs by said general purpose computer and applying the test patterns to a digital circuit board under control of the personal computer; and an interface for transferring stimulus data and response data between the basic test unit and the digital circuit board, wherein said ATG host computer includes means for analyzing the performance of ATG test programs run by the general purpose computer which in turn comprises means for analyzing performance of the basic test unit and transmitting results back to the ATG host computer.

Claim 10

A method of developing test programs sets, comprising the steps of a) analyzing a unit under test (UUT), generating a model thereof and programming said model into an automatic test generation system (ATG) host computer; b) using the host computer to generate stimulus test patterns and simulating the patterns in order to determine their effect on the model; c) upon achieving acceptable simulated results, integrating the test patterns into apparatus capable of applying the test patterns to the UUT, by sending the test pattern to a personal Computer and causing .the personal computer to integrate the test patterns into a basic test unit; d) using the basic test unit to apply the test patterns thus generated to the UUT and analyzing the results; e) if the results are acceptable, providing the UUT with sample faults and applying the test pattern; f) if the results are not acceptable, varying the model or stimulus and repeating steps (c)-(e).

Claim 11

A method of developing test programs sets, comprising the steps of a) analyzing a unit under test (UUT), generating a model thereof and programming said model into an automatic test generation system (ATG) host computer; b) using the host computer to generate stimulus test patterns and simulating the patterns in order to determine their effect on the model; c) upon achieving acceptable simulated results, integrating the test patterns into apparatus capable of applying the test patterns to the UUT, by sending the test pattern to a personal Computer and causing .the personal computer to integrate the test patterns into a basic test unit; d) using the basic test unit to apply the test patterns thus generated to the UUT and analyzing the results; e) if the results are acceptable, providing the UUT with sample faults and applying the test pattern; f) if the results are not acceptable, varying the model or stimulus and repeating steps (c)-(e).