Implementing Serial Bus Interfaces Using General Purpose Digital Instrumentation

The use of generic digital test instruments for emulating common serial bus protocols often provides benefits over dedicated bus test products and often presents a trade-off between functionality, flexibility and cost. For example, a dedicated test solution can offer more extensive test capabilities such as protocol support for analyzing traffic between a bus controller and a device under test. However, a more general-purpose solution that utilizes a digital test instrument can offer the flexibility to adapt to non-standard baud rates and timing as well as supporting other digital test needs. Ultimately, the goal is to identify those instances where the clever or novel application of a general-purpose digital test tool is appropriate and provides tangible benefits. © 2006 IEEE.