Quick Instruments
FPGA based embedded functional test and measurement platform
Quick Instruments is a groundbreaking technology developed by Testonica. Testonica Lab is an Estonian R&D company acting in the sectors of Information Technologies and Electronics Production. TECOSERV is the Testonica partner in the Asia-Pacific region.
Quick Instruments provide an extensive set of FPGA embedded and software instruments to perform the appropriate tests. The respective configuration of the FPGA will be done via the JTAG Interface.
Example (Test of ARTY A7 Development Board)
To familiarise yourself with the Quick Instruments, let's start with an example: We recommend using the ARTY A7 Development Board from Digilent, which can be purchased either directly from Digilent or via Mouser. This board was developed for the Artix-7-FPGA and contains typical components and interfaces such as DDR memory, SPI flashes, an Ethernet interface as well as various jumpers, switches and LEDs.
The setup for the demo:
A special feature here is that the board contains an USB to JTAG converter, so only a standard micro USB cable is required to connect it to the PC. In this case the USB interface is also used to power the board.
The required demo runtime software for the PC can be downloaded free of charge from the Testonica website. The Quick Instruments required for this board are also included. Examples of how these instruments can be integrated into your own test program are also published and enable a quick start. Sample programs are available for Python, C# as well as NI Teststand or LabView.
This demo covers the following instruments:
1. Frequency Counter
2. Memory Interconnect Tester
3. DDR Margining Tester
4. Ethernet Basic Tester
5. Ethernet Stress Tester
6. SPI Tester
7. Flash IC Programmer (SPI)
8. ADC Measurement
9. PinTouch
10. SVF Player
Overview of the various Instruments
Testonica supports various applications with their Quick Instruments, here is a first overview with a short description:
Serial Vector Files
PinTouch
Pattern Generator
IO conditioning IP
IEEE 1149.8.1
IEEE 1149.6
Frequency Counter
Precise frequency measurement for on-board oscillators
Measurements in the range from 1 MHz up to 500 MHz
Accurate measurements with precision up to 50 ppm
Differential and single ended clock signals supported
Memory Interconnect Tester
At-speed test of interconnection lines between host and DDR memory
Finds opens/shorts, delays and other timing related faults
Provides extensive diagnostic information
DDR Margining Tester (add-on)
Evaluate quality of high-speed data signals by building BER diagrams
DDR4 Connectivity Tester
Test interconnection between DDR4 memory and host device (Connectivity Test Mode)
Test covers data/address busses as well as memory control signals
Extremely fast, test time is only a few seconds
Diagnostic information is provided upon fault detection
Flash IC Programmer
High-speed in-system flash programming with support of parallel or serial (SPI) flash devices
Capable to program, verify or read-out data
Performs blank check, sector erase and chip erase operations
Reads or verifies flash chip ID and flash manufacturer ID
Ethernet Basic Tester
Functional and structural tests for Ethernet links on a board
Supports GMII/RGMII/RMII/MII interfaces and 1000/100/10Mbps link speeds
Test for Ethernet PHY presence and operation
Structural at-speed test for opens/shorts/delays
Supports external/internal loopback test, PHY-to-PHY test or PHY-to-PC test
Automatically configures Ethernet PHY over MDIO interface
Ethernet Stress Tester (add-on)
Functional stress tests for Ethernet links on a board by measuring Frame Error Rate
UART Tester
Check your UART communication link
Sends and/or receives data over UART links, intended to test
UART/RS232/RS485/etc interfaces
I2C Tester
Communicate with on-board I2C devices
Single/multiple bytes read/write
Automatic scan of I2C bus (enumerates all connected I2C slave devices)
Read out values from on-board temperature sensor
Configure on-board power manager over I2c, etc.
SPI Tester
Communicate with SPI and Quad SPI devices
Interfacing with SPI slave devices
Write and read bytes via SPI protocol
Different communication modes (CPOL/CPHA) are supported
ADC measurement
Perform analog measurement using built-in analog-to-digital converters
On-chip monitoring of supply voltages and temperature
Measurement of analog values on external pins of FPGA ADC
Configure various parameters of ADC
SVF player
An easy-to-use tool for playing SVF files
A solution to program CPLDs via SVF files
Control Boundary Scan devices
Perform other arbitrary user-defined actions on JTAG bus
Bit Error Rate Tester (BERT)
Evaluates the quality of high-speed serial links (HSSL)
Calculates bit-error rate (BER) for a high-speed serial link
The test is done on a physical layer
Multi-gigabit rates are supported
Non-intrusive. Test results from inside
Measurement takes only several seconds
Eye BERT with Mask (add-on)
Fully-automated quality check for high-speed serial links by measuring BER eye diagram
PCI Express BERT (add-on)
Evaluates the quality of PCIe serial links and board-to-board connections
Ethernet 10G/40G BERT (add-on)
Evaluates the quality of serial links that use 10G/40G Ethernet protocols
SDI BERT (add-on)
Evaluates the quality of serial links that use SDI protocol
JESD204 BERT (add-on)
Evaluates the quality of serial links that use JESD204 protocol
PinTouch
Test on-board LEDs, switches, push buttons and pin-to-pin connections
Drive a single pin High or Low
Measure value on a pin
Switch on/off and blink LEDs, check simple LCD displays
Test pus-buttons, switches, jumpers, presence of pull resistors, etc.
Check a pin-to-pin connection between two Boundary Scan devices
Digital Pattern Generator
Generate high-speed pattern out of FPGA
Generates digital pattern of predefined length on FPGA’s any digital output pin
IO conditioning IP
Set electrical parameters on arbitrary pins for correct signal conditioning
Setting of correct termination
Setting of I/O standard, static HIGH or LOW value
IEEE 1149.8.1 / 1149.6 Instruction support
Emulate IEEE 1149.8.1 or IEEE 1149.6 standards on FPGA pins
EXTEST_TRAIN and EXTEST_PULSE emulation (IEEE 1149.6)
SELECTIVE_TOGGLE emulation (IEEE 1149.8.1)