Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

To: Bill Jackson who wrote (28073)	1/22/1998 11:25:00 PM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (3) of 1574484

Bill - Re: "How will they test even production line CPUs in a timely manner when they get into the 50 million transistor area?" You have touched on a very important point. And there are methods to deal with them. Intel has included BIST (Built in Self Test) logic on their Pentium family processors so there is an initial series of tests (performed by the CPU itself) that is perfomed quite efficiently. The product engineers also hone the test suites - test vectors - improving test coverage and optimizing the test vectors to perform more internal logic coverage with more optimized test flows. This experience has been built up from almost 20 years of x86 production test experience. Also, as chips get faster - and assuming you can FIND a suitable logic testor that can run at these new chip speeds (500 to 800 MHz), the test times can be maintained just because the chips can be clocked faster. However, finding these testers isn't easy. There are very few vendors and the new testers are multi-multi-million dollar investments. Perhaps someone else on this thread can add some insight into the test difficulties with newer CPU chips? Paul

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next