Often in designs with serial communication protocols such as I2C and SPI, the NI STS's "drive" and "capture" capabilities are handy to use. In .digipatsrc pattern file, the pattern character "D" represents a pin being in "drive" mode, and a "V" represents a pin being in "capture" mode.
Now, when converting EDA format (WGL, STIL, VCD, EVCD) to NI STS, how does one specify the condition so that the drive and capture modes can be automatically generated?
Using TD-ScanPRO's "derive" conditioner and its NI_STS Testerbridge mapping capability, this can be achieved.
Let's say in an SPI example, the input line MOSI goes into drive (D) mode when MOSI_DEN goes high, and the output line MISO goes into capture (V) mode when MISO_CEN goes high.
TD-ScanPRO's "derive" conditioner is specified as follows:
This first step conditionally sets the input line into drive tristate Z and the output line into compare tristate 'T'.
Then in the NI STS Testerbridge step, we map these two states into the proper .digipatsrc state characters: Z->D, and T->V.
This two-step conversion process can be repeated in different areas of the test pattern, and it will save lots of time and effort.
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