Sun Microsystems Inc has turned to privately held LogicVision Inc for technology to reduce its test development time and costs. Sun will use LogicVision’s icBIST embedded Automatic Test Equipment in its Application Specific Integrated Circuit ASIC design process. San Jose, California-based Sun will use icBIST to test the ASIC on the chip tester and board tester in its factories and at customer sites. The Palo Alto, California company hopes the technology will enable it to cut the development time of its products, ranging from desktop workstations up to high end servers. Sun will be able to reuse the test facilities in its product assembly process, and claims as a result it will be able to identify and configure failures more quickly. LogicVision, which was established in 1992 claims icBIST is the first ATE system designed for at-speed test and diagnostics of digital and mixed-signal ASICs and system-on-a-chips. LogicVision’s customers include Hewlett-Packard Co, NCR Corp, Cisco Systems Inc, Lucent Technologies Inc and LM Ericsson Telefon AB.
