Integrated Measurement Systems Introduces IMS-Waves on Vanguard, An Interactive Timing Analysis Tool that Reduces Costly Debug Time & Optimizes Design Productivity.

Business/High Tech Editors

BEAVERTON, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 7, 2000

Integrated Measurement Systems, Inc., (Nasdaq:IMSC) today introduced IMS-Waves(TM) on Vanguard, a significant new software enhancement for its flagship Vanguard high-speed IC Validation system designed to minimize debug time, optimize device performance and shorten time-to-market.

Effective debugging of first silicon requires focused participation of a team of engineers, including design, product engineering, and test engineering. IMS-Waves on Vanguard simplifies and speeds up the activities of all these team members by displaying simulation data, Vanguard signal waveforms, logic analyzer timing captures and scope traces on a single, unified graphic display.

"IMS-Waves on Vanguard is a powerful, interactive validation tool that can maximize a design team's productivity," said Chuck Wiley, IMS Marketing Manager, Logic Validation Division. "Once first silicon arrives, the team's objective is to verify the performance so that the new design can be moved into manufacturing. Having the right tools for the right people during device verification can shave weeks or months off the process. IMS-Waves provides a common meeting ground for engineers from design and test to observe and verify performance in a familiar display."

IMS-Waves on Vanguard Offers Powerful Waveform Viewing Modes. IMS-Waves provides four standard display formats designed to simplify the task of debugging complex waveforms -- a digital timing diagram display, a logic analyzer timing display of DUT output signals, scope traces captured from the DUT, and a simulation waveform view.

The Timing Diagram displays the pattern and timing information set up in Vanguard, showing the signals forced by Vanguard and the compare strobe locations and polarities. Signals can be displayed individually or as buses.

The Logic Analyzer Timing Display shows for selected pins the locations of the edges on the waveforms actually received at the Vanguard comparators from the DUT. It is particularly useful to quickly locate actual DUT output signal transitions. It can also be used for rapid device timing margin analysis. With visual pin margin analysis, the engineer is able to quickly see how much timing margin a passing device has with the current setup, and make adjustments to the timing setup.

Signals captured in Scope Mode show analog waveforms from selected pins captured at the Vanguard comparators, constructed by sweeping both the timing strobes and the threshold values. The analog waveforms provide quick verification of signal fidelity issues and actual signal swings.

Simulation Mode displays waveforms of data imported from the simulator, showing the event timing used to verify the design prior to creating first silicon. When "curious behavior" is encountered in the first silicon, it can be very helpful to compare the simulation data with the test setup and actual DUT data, to determine whether any errors occurred during the vector translation process. Simulation-based waveforms can be fed into IMS-Waves through interfaces to IMS' pattern processing tools such as APT, IMS-Link or IMS' Virtual Test products.

IMS-Waves on Vanguard has the unique ability to display individual or bussed waveforms in any of the four modes simultaneously within a particular IMS-Waves session. Selected traces can be "locked" for comparison with newly acquired data. The user can overlay traces to simplify visual comparison of multiple pins or multiple acquisitions. A transition counter allows the user to rapidly verify the total number of edge transitions acquired. Used in conjunction with the other interactive windows in IMS Tools, such as pattern and shmoo, IMS-Waves simplifies device debug and analysis.

Availability. IMS-Waves is available July 2000 as a standard part of the Vanguard IMS Tools Software. Vanguard systems can be configured with up to 512 I/O, data rates up to 1 Gbit/s and up to 16 Fast Clocks at 500 MHz. System prices range from $770,000 to $2.3 million, depending upon the configuration selected.

About IMS

IMS designs, manufactures, markets and services a family of interactive, high-performance memory, logic and mixed-signal IC validation systems used by engineering teams to verify and isolate faults for complex electronic devices. In addition, the company develops and markets a line of Virtual Test(TM) Software products that allow IC test development and device debug before first-silicon. For additional company information, see the IMS Web sites at www.ims.com and www.virtualtest.com.