ASSET first to dupport Intel Xeon processors 5600/7500 series and Itanium 9300 processors with validation and test tools

RICHARDSON, USA: The ScanWorks platform for embedded instruments from ASSET InterTech, the leading supplier of open tools for embedded instrumentation, is the first third-party platform with validation and test tools for the newly announced families of server processors, the Intel Xeon 5600 and 7500 series, and the Itanium 9300 series.

ASSET’s ScanWorks platform capitalizes on Intel’s embedded instrumentation strategy, Interconnect Built-In Self Test (IBIST), which that company has been embedding into its leading processors and chip sets. ScanWorks provides a comprehensive validation and test solution for Intel-based designs and their high-speed input/output (I/O) buses, including Intel QuickPath Interconnect (Intel QPI), PCI Express (PCIe), Direct Memory Interface (DMI) and Double Data Rate memory, third generation (DDR3).

“As Intel increases the capabilities of the Xeon and Itanium processor families for the server, workstation and high-performance computing (HPC) markets, tools to quickly validate and test new design platforms become increasingly critical,” said Tim Caffee, ASSET’s vice president of design validation. “It’s always a race for equipment manufacturers to get to market before the competition with servers based on new processors. Effective validation tools like ScanWorks are imperative for this.”

The ScanWorks validation tools for high-speed I/O include bit error rate testing (BERT), margining tests, and pattern generation and checking. In validation applications, these tools verify that the serial I/O buses perform as expected before the design moves into high-volume manufacturing.

Short term rental pricing for the ScanWorks platform with validation tools for the Xeon processors 5600 and 7500 series begins at $13,350.