By Rick Nelson, Editor in Chief — Test & Measurement World
Freescale Semiconductor’s test engineers deliver the data necessary to get the company’s six-core network processors to market.
Freescale Semiconductor is addressing the processing needs of wireless broadband equipment vendors with devices such as its MSC8156, a six-core DSP based on the company’s new SC3850 StarCore technology. The high-performance, power-saving device leverages 45-nm process technology to deliver performance equivalent to that of a 6-GHz single-core device. To do that, it combines six fully programmable SC3850 DSP cores, each running at up to 1 GHz with an architecture optimized for wireless infrastructure applications, enabling near-term, mainstream adoption of next-generation wireless standards such as 3G-LTE, WiMAX, HSPA+, and TDD-LTE.
Not surprisingly, these complex devices present significant test challenges. The test engineers have to deal not only with the device complexity, but also with the challenges of working with the 45-nm state-of-the-art process. Their efforts extend from working with the design teams on DFT (design-for-test) strategies all the way to generating the data that can help drive yield improvements.
