DFTView and Verdi Give DFT and Test Engineers Visibility into STIL and WGL Files

EL DORADO HILLS, Calif — SpringSoft, Inc., a global supplier of specialized IC design software, and Source III, Inc., a leading supplier of test vector translation and analysis tools, announce the availability of Source III’s new DFTView™tool and its integration with SpringSoft’s Verdi™ Automated Debug System. Using both products together, DFT and test Engineers are able to graphically view and debug the contents of industry standard test files in the WGL and STIL formats.

STIL (Standard Test Interface Language – IEEE 1450.1999) and WGL (Waveform Generation Language) are industry standard languages used by Automatic Test Program Generators (ATPG) and Design for Test (DFT) tools to specify test patterns for IC devices. These languages use complex, high-level language syntax to describe the waveforms which ultimately are applied to an IC device on Automatic Test Equipment (ATE). It is difficult for DFT and Test engineers to inspect and validate these files before using them on a tester. DFTView is the industry’s first generic tool that gives engineers the ability to graphically see the actual waveforms defined by these intermediate test languages.

“The integration between our Verdi solution and Source III’s DFTView is a natural progression for us. Engineering teams can now take advantage of the visualization power of Verdi to understand the intended behavior of test files,” said Thomas Li, director of product marketing at SpringSoft.

In addition to graphically displaying the STIL or WGL files, DFTView checks the syntax of these files and generates error messages when the files contain errors. This is particularly helpful if the files have been hand-edited or contain manually generated sections. A correspondence between the vector lines in the WGL or STIL source file and waveform positions in the waveform display are maintained by the tool, which allows the user to view specific corresponding locations in each file.

“Source III has worked closely with key customers such as Qualcomm to provide features in DFTView that are most useful to engineers dealing with moving test vectors to ATE, and we will continue to do so with future enhancements to our products”, said John Cosley, CEO of Source III. “DFTView together with VTRAN, our vector translation product, gives our customers a powerful set of tools for handling their EDA-to-Test flow”.
About DFTView and Verdi

The industry’s first STIL and WGL viewer, DFTView offers a visual (waveform) view of WGL and STIL files, maintaining a correspondence between vector lines in the source file and equivalent locations in the waveform trace. It uses the same WGL and STIL reader technology that is used by VTRAN™, Source III’s industry-leading vector translation program. The product also allows users to edit the source files and see the immediate effects on the waveforms. It is available on Linux and Solaris platforms, both 32 and 64-bit versions. Users must have a SpringSoft Verdi/nWave software license to run DFTView. The product is available immediately from Source III as an option for Verdi users. Contact Source III at (916) 941-9403 or corp@sourceiii.com for additional technical information, evaluation copies and pricing.

The Verdi Automated Debug System is SpringSoft’s flagship product for advanced debug. It cuts debug time in half by automating the process of comprehending how complex IC and SoC designs work, particularly unfamiliar legacy design elements or third-party intellectual property. The full-featured system automates behavior tracing over time with its unique analysis engines, provides a powerful set of design views to visualize and help analyze cause-and-effect relationships, and uses patented techniques to reveal the functional operation and interaction between the design, assertions and system testbench.