ScanWorks® Processor-Controlled Test (PCT)

At-speed functional test without booting your boards

Testing and debugging circuit boards at processor speeds uncovers faults and failures that you might otherwise miss with those static test technologies. Processor-controlled test, or PCT, is one of the multiple toolkits that can be deployed on the ScanWorks platform for embedded instruments. PCT accesses the on-board processor through its debug port and then initiates register, memory and I/O read/writes from the processor independent of any system software. In fact, the BIOS doesn’t even have to be loaded yet. Because it can exercise the board from the processor, PCT is able to test anything that the processor is able to reach. Moreover, ScanWorks PCT’s at-speed testing provides diagnostic data at the functional layer as well.

PCT complements the other validation and test technologies on the ScanWorks platform. In test applications, PCT works hand-in-hand with ScanWorks Boundary-Scan Test to maximize structural test coverage. Although it is not a validation technology, ScanWorks PCT will function alongside the ScanWorks HSIO toolkit which is able to validate the performance of high-speed buses.

ScanWorks PCT in depth

How it works
Manufacturing or debug: you decide
Application areas
PCT resources
PCT product selector

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