Testing methodology for FireWire

This article describes a methodology for testing a high-performance serial bus interface commonly referred to as FireWire. Specified by the IEEE 1394 document, FireWire is offered by IC manufacturers in various scalable configurations. In general, it is a low-cost device used to provide a highspeed data path between various systems and products, such as PCs and video devices. FireWire is also usable as a backplane bus interconnect. Application-specific IC manufacturers offer FireWire standard cells for use in custom device designs. To assure cost-effective production, the tester and implementation costs must be reasonable, the execution time must be short, and test results must be accurate. Our methodology fulfils these goals with a minimum of compromises. We validated it using a plastic leaded chip carrier device with an 8-bit parallel port and multiple serial ports on an Advantest T6682 VLSI Logic Test System.