NATIONAL Instruments has released its 2011 Automated Test Outlook report, sharing its research into the technologies and methodologies shaping test and measurement.
The report details trends that apply across numerous industries including consumer electronics, automotive, semiconductor, aerospace and defense, medical devices and communications.
According to National Instruments, engineers and managers can use the insight from the report to take advantage of the latest strategies and best practices for optimising any test organisation.
The 2011 Automated Test Outlook is based on input from academic and industry research, user forums and surveys, business intelligence and customer advisory board reviews.
The report is organized into five categories: Business Strategy, Architectures, Computing, Software and I/O.
The report claims major trends including organisation test integration, system software stack, heterogeneous computing and IP to the Pin.
Organisational Test Integration: Integrating validation and production test requires a focus on changes to strategy, processes, people and technology.
System Software Stack: A highly integrated software framework provides a flexible system architecture for adding measurement capability and reducing test time.
Heterogeneous Computing: Future test systems will require different types of processing nodes to address increasingly demanding analysis and processing needs.
IP to the Pin: Sharing field-programmable gate array (FPGA) intellectual property (IP) between design and test dramatically shortens design verification/validation and improves production test time and fault coverage.
The report may be accessed at www.ni.com/ato