Source III's VTRAN Speeds Time-to-Market for TetraMAX ATPG
TetraMAX Description
TetraMAX® ATPG is the leader for automatically generating high
quality manufacturing test vectors. As a critical part of TetraMAX,
the interoperability flow between Synopsys' TetraMAX and Source
III's VTRAN allows for quick and easy translation of ATPG-generated
test vector data to many popular device test program formats, as
well as simulation testbench formats.
Challenge
During TetraMAX's product beta in fall 1998, the software development
and applications team faced their share of challenges. As a key
member of the corporate applications team, Julie Villar, was tasked
with generating market interest at major foundries including Fujitsu,
Toshiba, LSI, NEC, and Texas Instruments. However, with the merger
of 3 ATPG products, Julie and her team realized they had a major
problem on their hands. They needed to decide on which test vector
formats to support based on a myriad of choices already supported
by all three ATPG products. Not only that, they had to accurately
translate those vectors from their STIL-based TetraMAX product to
target many tester platforms. With the final release date looming
in the following quarter, Julie's team needed to find a solution
quickly.
Strategy
While searching for the solution, the TetraMAX team quickly ruled
out any internally developed translators given the requirements
of time-to-market, quality, and multiple test language format support.
Synopsys had to look elsewhere for a solution. As it turns out,
they didn't have to look very far because the Test Compiler product
acquired by Synopsys was already using a solution from Source III.
After several discussions between the TetraMAX team and Source III,
it was clear that Source III's VTRAN product was the critical "link"
for TetraMAX, so Synopsys decided to look no further. "Without
VTRAN, IC customers could not pass their ASIC designs to foundries",
said Julie. "Source III was the only vendor with STIL support
- providing us with an overall solution that no one else could."
Implementation
As the TetraMAX team began to interface to VTRAN, the translation
worked immediately - giving the team final assurance that a solution
was found. Source III's VTRAN was customized to read TetraMAX's
WGL and STIL test format while providing a translation path to many
test vector formats such as Toshiba TSTL2, Texas Instruments TDL91,
and Fujitsu FTDL, and Verilog VCDE (input only), testbench formats
including Verilog and VHDL and target tester formats from Credence,
Teradyne, and Agilent.
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Translating TetraMAX Vector Files Using VTRAN
Source III's VTRAN was customized to read TetraMAX's WGL and STIL formats while providing a translation path to many test vector formats such as Toshiba TSTL2, Texas Instruments TDL91, Fujitsu FTDL, several testbench formats including Verilog and VHDL and numerous tester formats such as Credence, Teradyne, Agilent, and IMS.
Results
By providing a path to several foundry formats, Source III's VTRAN
helped TetraMAX expand its customer reach. In doing so, VTRAN paved
the way for TetraMAX to reach market acclaim. The result is the
"Best in Test" award given to TetraMAX in 2000, which
honors important and innovative new products in the electronics
test and measurement industry.
