Signal definition and test description - an IEEE standard

This paper presents a summary of the new Signal Definition and Test Description Standard (SDTD) to be published by the IEEE. SDTD represents a radical departure from previous approaches to test description, in that it no longer simply represents a test language, as typified by ATLAS standards such as IEEE Std. 716 1995. Instead it provides a framework for component libraries of signal descriptions, which can be readily deployed in today's Automatic Test Systems (ATS) with other standards such as the IVI Signal Interface from the IVI foundation. The other major benefit of this Standard is the ease with which users can extend the signal types to describe emerging technologies and their associated signal requirements.