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Automated Test Summit 2005 Keynote

Trends and Techniques Across the Development Cycle

Welcome to the Automated Test Summit 2005. Thank you all for joining us. We have a very exciting day full of great information on trends and techniques for automated test systems development. Over the course of the day, you will hear from experts not only from National Instruments but also from five fantastic corporate partners that I’ll introduce later. Some of you may know that this is the second Automated Test Summit hosted by NI – the first was almost exactly a year ago, and the feedback was so overwhelmingly positive that we knew we had to do it again. Anyone in the audience from last year? Some of the topics discussed will be similar, but all will have new, updated information addressing the latest challenges facing product validation and manufacturing.

Before we get into the sessions, I want to take a few minutes to discuss the overall themes of the day.

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Technology Evolution Drives Test Complexity

The complexity of a test system is fundamentally driven by the complexity of the device being tested. The example, of course, that everyone can relate to is the cell phone. Remember a few years ago when it was just a phone? Now, at the heart of a cell phone is a general purpose microprocessor and new functionality is often defined in software. For example, by adding a $3 chipset and new software, new phones are including 802.22 wireless Ethernet and voice-over-IP functionality. A typical phone in the coming 1–2 years will add full motion video, internet access, music, and gaming.

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Software-Enabled Devices are Everywhere

Telematics

Hard drive music player

Images courtesy of Apple, Philips, GE, Electromotive, Fossil, and Lockheed Martin

Video player

Media centerInternet

refrigerator

Internet wristwatch

Engine control unit

Weapons systems

Of course, the phone is not the only software-enabled device. This trend cuts across all industries. Modern missile systems, for example, include functionality such as infrared video, pattern recognition, laser guidance, and even audio recognition so that the missile can recognize and track the sound of a tank. Refrigerators with internet access are no longer science fiction—go to Best Buy and you can get one now. Even the simple wristwatch is getting smarter—at the recent Consumer Electronics Show Microsoft announced a partnership with Citizen, Fossil, and Suunto to serve news and info to watches using Microsoft Smart Personal Objects Technology.

Using embedded software, design engineers are now able to add new features to devices in record time. In many cases, like the refrigerator, this approach is being employed on what were relatively low-tech devices that didn’t move quickly with respect to technology.

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Power Supply

Traditional Test Approach is Breaking Down

Oscilloscope

Logic Analyzer

Spectrum AnalyzerDMM

Communications Analyzer

LCR Meter

FunctionGenerator

Pattern Generator

Programmable Switch

Images courtesy of Fluke, Rohde & Schwarz, LeCroy, Ascor, Agilent, and Tektronix

The traditional approach to testing in beginning to break down for these rapidly changing devices. Adding a new vendor-defined box to test each new feature is too slow and too expensive and many times, the box to test a cutting-edge feature hasn’t even been built yet. The only way to keep up with the changes in design is to employ a software oriented approach in the test system that mirrors the software oriented model of the devices themselves.

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Top Concerns Among Test EngineersKeeping up with technology to maintain quality, reduce costs, and increase throughput

43%

40%

38%

36%

31%

26%

20%

17%

10%

9%

9%

5%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Obtaining up-to-date computer resources

Reducing test escapes

Outsourcing test/ measurement work

Product liability/recalls

Meeting international standards

Finding qualified technical personnel

Beating competitors to market

Achieving greater throughput on tests

Time/schedule management

Reducing test costs

Insuring high quality products

Education/keeping up with technology

Top Job Concerns

Source: Profile of the Test Engineer Survey, Test & Measurement World, 2003

In order for design and test engineers to keep up with requests to support additional features and functionality it is essential for them to keep up with the latest technologies. This is becoming increasingly difficult, given the workloads of today’s engineers. Attending continuing education classes and focused industry events such as the Automated Test Summit is a great way for engineers to maximize their time to learn about the latest test technologies and best practices.

The circled concerns on the slide represent some of the key areas that we will address throughout the day.

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More than 25,000 companiesGreater than 90% of Fortune 500 manufacturing companies

Diversity of Customers and Applications

National Instruments is a very diverse business across geographies, customers, industries, and products. Any manufactured product is tested in either the design, test, or manufacturing stage of production. As companies use NI virtual instrumentation tools throughout the enterprise, they can achieve shorter time to market with efficiencies at each stage of the design to manufacturing process.

Virtual Instrumentation has been adopted by many companies to accelerate their test, control, and design applications. In fact, more than 25,000 different companies at hundreds of thousands of sites have turned to virtual instrumentation to gain this distinct accelerating advantage. The acceleration is seen in many areas including research, design, testing and validation, and in manufacturing control and test. We at National Instruments continue to research, develop, and leverage high-investment technologies to deliver highly productive software, modular I/O and the platform of virtual instrumentation, imbued with the characteristic of intrinsic-integration to make it both high performance and rapidly adaptable. To give it the characteristics that empower you, the scientists and engineers, to keep pace with producing the accelerating response to the world’s accelerating needs.

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Automated Test Customer Advisory Board

� Leading electronics manufacturers� Consumer electronics� Military/Aerospace� Automotive� Communications

� Senior management and industry experts� Director of Test, Senior Test Manager, and Senior Test

Engineer

National Instruments also meets regularly with members of our Automated Test Customer Advisory Board (AT-CAB). This group is comprised of senior management and industry experts from approximately 20 companies across all industries. The regular AT-CAB meetings assist NI in staying on top of the latest industry trends and challenges. The AT-CAB group also provides valuable feedback on future product roadmaps and direction.

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Most Important Factors Influencing TestQuantitative� Capital costs� Development costs� Maintenance costs� Utilization (hw + sw)� Footprint (size)� Yield (quality)� Throughput

Qualitative� Convergence of new

technologies� Increasing complexity of

devices under test� Integration of design and

test� Globalization of design and

manufacturing

In order to determine the essential technologies and best practices required to overcome the top concerns in automated test it is important to understand the latest trends in automated test and the key factors influencing buying and development decisions today. In general there is a mix of quantitative and qualitative factors influencing automated test.

The quantitative factors like capital, development, and maintenance costs all drive us towards flexible and reusable equipment. Utilization, throughput, and footprint tell us we need high-performance hardware and software to run tests. Under the qualitative section, this convergence of new technologies and increasing complexity reinforces this need for a new paradigm – shifting to a modular approach that can adapt to new test requirements very quickly. The integration of design and test and the globalization of design and manufacturing suggest that whatever solution we identify had better have appeal for the entire enterprise.

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41%

52%

37%

33%

32%

19%

14%

9%

9%

6%

6%

5%

5%

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Increased use of structural test for ICs

Porting test programs from Unix to Windows

Implementing new fault models in semiconductor test

Testing microelectromechanical structures (MEMS)

Increased use of structural test for boards andsubassemblies

Porting test programs from Unix or Windows to Linux

Measuring 10-GHz and higher signals

Testing embedded software

Achieving electromagnetic compatibility

Linking design and test environments

Automatic test generation

Measuring extremely low voltages, currents, andresistances

Implementing design for test

Considerations Extend Beyond Test

Stay competitive by linking design and test

Source: Profile of the Test Engineer Survey, Test & Measurement World, 2003

Additional information on market considerations driving test can be derived from research. It is equally important to keep up with the latest test processes and strategies to stay competitive and maximize your development resources. A key trend for accelerating the product development cycle that we will continue to see into the future is the linking of design and test. According to the Test & Measurement World survey, more than half of the engineers indicated their companies were focusing on improving the efficiencies of their test operations by implementing design for test and leveraging design and test tools that integrated well together.

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Accelerating Product Development

Research/Modeling

Verification/Validation ManufacturingDesign/

Simulation

Essential Test Technologies and Practices

Design Iteration Test SystemDevelopment

The key to accelerating product development and reducing costs is focusing on improving the efficiency of the design iteration and test system development phases. In order to drive improvements in these areas it is important to understand the latest technologies and strategies that can assist you in standardizing on a common test platform across the product development cycle. Leveraging an integrated test platform across the product development cycle allows you to quickly test your designs in the prototype phase and minimizes the cycle times associated with supporting new products in the manufacturing test system development.

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Needs Across the Development Flow� Design/Validation

� Interactive, custom-defined measurement systems

� Advanced analysis and visualization

� Integration with simulation� Networked collaboration tools

� Manufacturing� High throughput� Low system cost� Redeployment of test resources to

new products� Integration with enterprise systems

� Common Needs� User defined software to adapt to new

technologies/standards� Broad set of signal generation, acquisition

and communications interface tools� Reliable/Stable operation

Defining a common test platform that meets the requirements of design, validation, and manufacturing requires a close examination of the needs in each phase. The design and validation phase often requires custom defined measurements with interactive analysis and visualization capabilities. Manufacturing is more focused on throughput and integration with enterprise systems. A common test platform capable of supporting design, validation, and manufacturing should be based on user-defined software that can be quickly adapted to insert new technologies and standards in addition to integrating with existing simulation and enterprise software. Modular hardware capable of providing a broad set of signal generation, acquisition, and communication interface tools that deliver stable and repeatable measurements also is critical to the success of a common test platform.

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� Lower cost� Higher performance� Smaller size� Flexible� Easily upgraded� User-defined

Telematics Unit

A Flexible, Reusable Approach to Test

Cell Phone

DVD Player

Modular Hardware, Intuitive Software

Using a PXI-based tester or hybrid PXI-GPIB-LAN system, centered on the concept of virtual instrumentation, offers a flexible, reusable approach to test. With modular hardware and intuitive software, you can achieve high-throughput validation and test that lowers cost and decreases footprint while maintaining ease-of-use and upgradeability. This is true whether your device under test is a telematics system, DVD player, or cellular phone. This is the key way to address the quantitative and qualitative concerns we addressed earlier – modular hardware, intuitive software.

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Automated Test Summit 2005 Sessions� Bridging Validation and Test with Common Software

Technology� Incorporating Best Practices for Ensuring Product Quality� Evaluating Platforms for Performance and Reusability� Improving Test Throughput with Emerging Technologies

Today at the Automated Test Summit 2005, we will discuss some of the key challenges facing the design validation and test industries as well as successful strategies for addressing them. We’ll start the day discussing common software platforms designed to bridge validation and test, work our way into best practices for ensuring product quality, and then take a short break for lunch. In the afternoon, we will have a discussion on measurement platforms and the implications of platform selection on the task at hand. Finally, we will end the day discussing emerging technologies—both hardware and software based—that will allow you to take your manufacturing test throughput and effectiveness to new levels.

You will see solutions using modular hardware and intuitive software applied to the challenges facing test.

We are joined by five corporate partners representing different facets of automated test system development.

Each of these partners will lend their expertise in presentations throughout the day and as part of the exhibition during frequent breaks between sessions. Feel free to ask them the tough questions about your application – they are the experts!