New interposer opens test access to Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series and Core™ i7 processors

Design, test and field repair engineers have a difficult time testing circuit boards with processors based on Intel’s new Nehalem microarchitecture because production boards usually either don’t include circuitry to the processor’s debug port or a connector is not included on the circuit board.

Like ASSET’s other interposers and top-side adapters, the new LGA1366 interposer overcomes this problem for the purposes of the more cost-effective non-intrusive board test technologies such as processor-controlled test (PCT) on the ScanWorks® platform for embedded instrumentation. In addition to providing a lower cost-of-test, non-intrusive board test (NBT) also offers improved test coverage over the older intrusive test technologies such as in-circuit test (ICT).

The LGA1366 interposer provides a direct interface between the processor on an assembled circuit board and PCT on ScanWorks. The non-intrusive PCT test technology can apply tests, diagnostics and debug routines to the entire circuit board through the Intel processor without placing physical probes anywhere on the board. Unlike intrusive test technologies like ICT, which require expensive bed-of-nails fixtures for testing circuit boards, PCT on ScanWorks is a non-intrusive technology that relies on software. It tests the electrical integrity of a board and applies functional tests at processor speeds through the CPU’s debug port.

“With this interposer and ScanWorks’ PCT capabilities, manufacturers can achieve greater test coverage on Intel®-based circuit boards,” said Larry Osborn, ASSET’s technical marketing manager for PCT. “And PCT is just one of the NBT technologies on the ScanWorks platform. Also on ScanWorks are boundary-scan test and Intel’s own embedded instrumentation technology, Interconnect Built-In Self Test (IBIST). When you consider the test coverage that these NBT technologies provide, you quickly realize that the ScanWorks platform has a much better cost-to-coverage ratio than any of the older intrusive test technologies.”

Reviving dead circuit boards

In addition to the enhanced test coverage that ASSET’s interposers and top-side adapters make possible in manufacturing, they can also be applied very effectively in repair operations. Some circuit boards are broken to the point where they cannot launch the operating system (OS) or BIOS. Since most functional test techniques require a running BIOS or OS, these diagnostic tests cannot be performed on non-booting circuit boards. Fortunately, ScanWorks’ PCT tests do not require an OS or BIOS. As a result, the precise diagnostics of PCT can locate faults and failures on otherwise dead circuit boards. The manufacturer can then repair these boards and recoup some of the costs associated with them.

Compatibility with third-party CPU emulation tools

The LGA1366 interposer’s standard Intel® debug port (XDP) header connector allows third-party CPU emulation tools to access the Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series and Core™ i7 processor debug ports, even when a XDP header is not provided on the circuit board.

For more information on the LGA1366, contact your local ASSET representative, or send an email to ai-info@asset-intertech.com.