ASSET a Best in Test finalist again

The Remote Instrumentation Controller, Model 1000 (RIC-1000), has been named a finalist in Test and Measurement World magazine’s Best In Test awards program for 2009. This marks the fourth time in the last six years that ASSET has been represented on the list of finalists for the award. According to the Test and Measurement World web site (www.tmworld.com), the winner of each category and the top vote-getter will be named on the web site April 1 and in the April edition of the magazine. Winners have been determined by online voting, which was completed Feb. 6.

The RIC-1000 is a controller for the ScanWorks® embedded instrumentation platform. It is the industry’s first boundary-scan controller capable of applying tests over the Internet. The typical configuration of a JTAG or boundary scan test station calls for the controller to be installed in a personal computer and then connected by cables to the circuit board that is being tested. The compact RIC-1000 comes in a self-contained enclosure which is cabled to a circuit board or other unit under test (UUT) and communicates remotely over the Internet or an Ethernet network to ScanWorks. The RIC-1000 applies tests locally and communicates results to the remote ScanWorks platform.

World Wide Test

“It’s similar to the World Wide Web in that a test engineer can perform design validation, apply tests or debug a circuit board or assembly anywhere in the world via the RIC-1000 and the Internet,” said Alan Sguigna, vice president of sales and marketing for ASSET. “In terms of cost-effectiveness, the RIC family gives both large and small companies the ability to pinpoint their human and test technology resources wherever and whenever they are needed.”

The RIC-1000 incorporates local intelligence and implements a client/server architecture in relation to a remote ScanWorks station. Each RIC-1000 can be assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address. As a result, a test engineer at a ScanWorks station in the United States could apply tests via a RIC-1000 over the Internet on a circuit board in a factory in Asia, for example.