ASSET launches validation tools for mobile and desktop systems designed for future 22nm based Intel Core processors

RICHARDSON, USA: ASSET, with its ScanWorks platform for embedded instruments, is the first tools provider to launch third-party validation and debug tools for designs targeting future 22nm based Intel Core processors for the desktop and mobile marketplaces. ASSET is the leading supplier of validation, test and debug tools for embedded instrumentation.

The ScanWorks High-Speed IO Toolkit for PC Client validates and debugs circuit board designs targeting the future Intel Core processor family for desktop/mobile designs that will be fabricated at the 22 nanometer (nm) process node. The new processors will follow Intel’s recently released 2nd generation Intel Core processor products. Because of the higher speeds and complexities of these platforms, manufacturers will have greater requirements for validation and debug tools to ensure new products will be delivered to market in a timely manner.

ScanWorks is a high-level diagnostic tool that can graphically visualize and display validation and debug information down to the level of an individual bit or a specific lane on a high-speed serial bus. The buses that can be validated include the DDR3, PCI Express Graphics (PEG) and Direct Media Interface (DMI) buses. Based on encoded information derived from the processor’s BIOS (basic input/output system), ScanWorks can quickly determine the poorest performing lanes or data lines on a bus and display the results of its diagnostic analysis graphically for easy understanding by engineers.

“Intel is helping advance the state-of-the-art in electrical margining capability by developing technology which allows companies such as ASSET to deliver a new generation of tools targeted for the next generation Intel Core processor family,” said John Barton, vice president of the Intel Architecture Group and general manager of Platform Validation Engineering for Intel Corporation. “These ASSET ScanWorks tools are designed to improve the productivity and quality of engineers’ work when designing with Intel’s latest high-speed interconnects.”

ASSET has tailored the ScanWorks High-Speed IO Toolkit for PC Client as a web-based product offering which meets the typical validation and debug needs of engineers designing for the mobile and desktop marketplaces.

“Time is of the utmost importance in the desktop and mobile markets. As such, it is very critical that users of this ScanWorks toolkit are able to purchase it, obtain training and acquire reference material on it very quickly,” said Tim Caffee, vice president of board validation for ASSET.

“In addition to buying this toolkit online, the entire support infrastructure of training, training materials, user documents and other requirements can be downloaded directly from the web. This allows the ScanWorks High-Speed IO Toolkit for PC Client to be deployed quickly when the design team reaches that very critical point in the process when the performance of high-speed buses must be validated or debugged.”

Pricing is $1,995 for a 90-day license. In addition to tools for designs targeting 22nm based versions of Intel microarchitecture codenamed Sandy Bridge, ASSET’s ScanWorks supports a number of other Intel platforms.