CN102479165A - Automatic configuration method for identification code of test device - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses an automatic configuration method of an identification code of a test device, which comprises the following steps: connecting a plurality of test devices to a sequence bus, wherein each test device comprises an identification buffer; detecting a first test device connected with the sequence bus and using the first test device as a working device; writing the identification code of the working device into the identification buffer of the working device; logically connecting the working device with the downstream of the sequence bus; detecting whether a secondary device corresponding to the working device exists downstream of the sequence bus; and when the secondary device exists, the secondary device is taken as a new working device, and the steps are repeated until all the testing devices are written into the corresponding identification codes. No additional storage component or external switch is required to be arranged on the testing device. And a hardware configuration circuit is not required to be additionally arranged for the purpose.

Description

Automatic configuration method of identification code of test device

technical field

The present invention relates to an automatic configuration method of an identification code of a test device, in particular to a method that does not require an additional Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) or a hardware configuration circuit. The automatic configuration method of the identification code of the test device.

Background technique

Testing has always played a very important role in the production process of products. Since it is very likely that defective products will be produced due to some unspecified factors during the production process, all finished products need to be tested before they can be shipped or put on the market. If not tested by quality control personnel, defective products will eventually be shipped to the market for sale without the flaws being detected. When the user purchases these problematic products, it will not only cause inconvenience to the user, but also greatly reduce the image of the production company.

However, during the testing process, various problems may make the testing inefficient, costly, and even error-prone. For example, when a plurality of bus interfaces of a unit under test (UUT) will be tested, it is necessary to connect test devices with the same function to each interface on the same bus; but how to distinguish these same test devices is a very difficult task. Big question. When testing, it is necessary to be able to individually access any test device; and when the test fails, it is necessary to be able to simply and surely know which one is wrong.

In order to access each test device, each test device needs to have a unique accessed address (that is, an identification code). There are two common approaches. The first method is to add an external configuration resistor, a jumper switch (jumper) or a dip switch (bender) on the test device, and specify the identification code of each test device by manually changing the high and low combination of external hardware pins. However, this method will not only increase the space occupied by the wiring (layout), but also increase the hardware cost of the additional hardware. In addition, the complexity of configuring the identification code is even more of a problem. The configuration staff need to manually set the identification code of each test device, which is extremely error-prone; and with the increase of test devices, the degree of re-examination is greatly improved. And this method is limited by the external hardware configuration environment, and the number of test devices cannot be increased arbitrarily.

Another method is to additionally add a storage component such as an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) in the test device to write different identification codes into the test device in advance. However, this method may need to maintain many different configuration files (file images) for different test items, and leads to increased maintenance costs and reduced ease of use. Needless to say, the EEPROM that must be added to the test equipment or increase the hardware cost, the equipment required for this method to provide programming to the EEPROM will also increase the cost.

Therefore, the existing method for configuring identification codes for multiple test devices has problems such as requiring additional hardware costs, high configuration complexity, error-prone, and difficult maintenance.

Contents of the invention

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a method for automatically configuring the identification code of the testing device, so as to overcome the above-mentioned problems in the prior art.

The automatic configuration method of the identification code of test device among the present invention comprises: a plurality of test devices are connected to a serial bus (serial bus, serial bus), wherein each test device comprises an identification register (identification register, ID register, register); detect the first test device connected to the serial bus and as a working device; write an identification code of the working device in the identification buffer of the working device; logically connect the downstream of the working device and the serial bus; detect the serial bus Whether there is a secondary device (next device) corresponding to the working device in the downstream; and when the secondary device exists, use the secondary device as a new working device, and repeat the above steps until all test devices are written into the corresponding identification code until.

According to an embodiment, wherein the secondary device is the first test device connected to the serial bus after the working device.

The step of "logically connecting the downstream of the working device with the serial bus" may include: setting the value of a switch register of the working device to close to logically connect the secondary device of the working device with the serial bus.

The identification register or switch register can be configured in a complex programmable logic device (Complex programmable logic device, CPLD) built in each test device.

According to another embodiment, before the step of "writing an identification code of the working device into the identification register of the working device", the method for automatically configuring the identification code of the testing device may further include: powering on and initializing all testing devices.

The initial value of the identification register may be 0, and the initial value of the switch register may be open.

In addition, the CPLD of each test device may include a secondary device register to indicate whether there is a secondary device corresponding to the test device downstream of the serial bus.

To sum up, the automatic configuration method of the identification code of the test device designs an identification register inside the existing CPLD chip in the test device, therefore, no additional storage components or external switches are required in the test device. Moreover, the connection between the control serial bus and the test device can be realized through the switch register, so as to cut off or connect the entire serial bus, and there is no need to set up additional hardware configuration circuits for this purpose. In addition, since the automatic configuration method of the identification code of the test device can automatically detect the test devices in sequence and dynamically assign the identification code, it is not necessary to burn in the configuration file of the identification code in the test device in advance.

The present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments, but not as a limitation of the present invention.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a unit under test according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2A is a connection diagram of a testing device and a serial bus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram of a testing device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a method for automatically configuring an identification code of a test device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an automatic configuration method for an identification code of a test device according to another embodiment.

Among them, reference signs:

20, 20a, 20b, 20c: Test device

22: Master controller

24: Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD)

241: Identification register

242: switch buffer

30: Serial bus

32: Unit under test

34: Monitoring module

36: Main computing unit

Detailed ways

The detailed features and advantages of the present invention are described in detail below in the embodiments, the content of which is sufficient to enable any person skilled in the art to understand the technical content of the present invention and implement it accordingly, and according to the content disclosed in this specification, the scope of claims and the drawings , any person skilled in the art can easily understand the related objects and advantages of the present invention.

The present invention relates to an automatic configuration method of an identification code of a test device, which is applicable to multiple test devices connected to the same serial bus (serial bus). In this method, different identification codes can be individually assigned to a plurality of identical test devices, and these test devices with unique identification codes can be used to test at least one unit under test (UUT).

Please refer to FIG. 1 , FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B at the same time, which are a schematic diagram of a unit under test, a connection diagram of a test device and a serial bus, and a block diagram of a test device, respectively. The unit under test 32 can be connected to a monitoring module 34 for testing. On the same serial bus 30, the test device 20a, the test device 20b, and the test device 20c can be connected simultaneously. And the monitoring module 34 can be connected to a main computing unit (Main Computational Unit, MCU) 36 of a calculator to which the monitoring module 34 belongs. In an example embodiment, the unit under test 32 may have a plurality of connection interfaces (interface, also referred to as a connection port, port, interface) for connecting the test devices 20 to the unit under test 32 . The serial bus 30 is used to control the startup and shutdown of the test and to obtain test results, and serially connects the monitoring module 34 and each testing device 20 .

For example, the unit under test 32 can be a notebook computer, a server, a smart phone or a motherboard; the connection interface and the serial bus 30 can be, for example, conform to the Universal Serial Bus (Universal Serial Bus, USB) standard, serial advanced technology accessories (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, serial ATA, SATA) standard, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 1394 (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 1394, IEEE 1394) standard or RS-232 standard bus. The test device 20 can be an add-in small card, which has a master controller (mastercontroller) 22 and a complex programmable logic device (Complex programmable logic device, CPLD) 24. In addition, each test device 20 has a built-in identification register 241 . The identification register 241 can be configured in the original CPLD 24 of the testing device 20, as shown in FIG. 2B. The method for automatically configuring the identification code of the test device can run on the unit under test 32 , and can also run on the monitoring module 34 connected to the unit under test 32 and used to monitor the test status.

For another example, when the connection interface is an advanced technology attachment (Advanced Technology Attachment, ATA) standard interface, the test device 20 can be a hard disk emulator (Hard Disk emulator) used to replace an expensive SAS hard disk.

Please refer to FIG. 3 , which is a flow chart of a method for automatically configuring an identification code of a test device according to an implementation example.

First, these test devices 20 are connected to the serial bus 30 (step S110). For example, in order to test the transmission capability of the connection interface, the tester can manually plug the test devices 20 into the connection interface and turn on the power of the unit under test 32 .

According to another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4 , before starting to configure the identification code, all the test devices 20 may be initialized (step S115 ) in addition to turning on the power. An initialization program may be configured in the CPLD 24 of each test device 20, which is executed immediately after the test device 20 is powered on. The initialization program can clear all the values of the identification registers 241 to 0 or a specific reserved value before starting to configure the identification codes.

After the initialization is completed, the automatic configuration method of the test device ID automatically detects the first test device 20 connected to the serial bus 30 as a working device (step S120 ). The following describes the test device 20a as the first test device 20 connected to the serial bus 30 . Then in step S120, the testing device 20a is used as a working device.

The method for automatically configuring the identification code of the test device can write the identification code of the working device into the identification register 241 of the working device according to a special rule (step S130 ). For example, when the number of test devices 20 is less than 256, the identification register 241 may be a register with 8 bits; and the identification code of the first working device may be configured as a maximum value of 0xFF.

After the identification code is written into the identification register 241 of the working device, the working device is logically connected to the downstream of the serial bus 30 (step S140 ). It is defined that the end of the serial bus 30 close to the signal source is upstream (near the testing device 20a), and the end away from the signal source is downstream (near the testing device 20c). In step S140 , the value of a switch register 242 of the working device may be set to close, so as to logically connect the working device and the downstream of the serial bus 30 . The identification register 241 can also be configured in the original CPLD 24 of the testing device 20.

In more detail, although all the test equipment 20 has been physically connected to the connection interface, the test equipment 20 can cut off the transmission of signals in the serial bus 30 through the switch buffer 242 . All other test devices 20 downstream of the test device 20 (as shown in FIG. 2B ) whose value of the switch register 242 is set to open (open) cannot receive the signal, therefore, form a logical disconnection with the serial bus 30 status. In step S115 , the values of the switch registers 242 of the test devices 20 may all be initialized to be on, so that each test device 20 is in a state of being disconnected from each other. In step S140, the test device 20 as the working device is logically connected to the downstream of the serial bus 30, so that the first test device 20 (called a secondary device, nextdevice) connected to the serial bus 30 after the working device can The signal transmitted by the serial bus 30 is received. In other words, in step S140 , the value of the switch register 242 of the working device is set to off, so as to logically connect the secondary device of the working device with the serial bus 30 .

After logically connecting the working device and the downstream of the serial bus 30, the automatic configuration method of the identification code of the test device can re-scan the serial bus 30 to detect whether there is a secondary device corresponding to the working device downstream of the serial bus 30 (step S150). When the secondary device corresponding to the current working device exists, use the secondary device as a new working device (step S160), and repeat steps S130 and S140 with the new working device to write the new identification code into the new working device device.

The identification codes written therein can number the test devices 20 in a descending manner. For example, the identification codes of the test devices 20a, 20b and 20c may be 0xFF, 0xFE and 0xFD respectively. And the above steps of selecting a new working device and configuring a new identification code can be repeated until all the testing devices 20 are written into the corresponding identification codes.

Conversely, when the existence of the secondary device corresponding to the current working device cannot be confirmed by methods such as enumeration within a specific time, it means that the current working device is the last test device 20 on the serial bus 30 (for example Test device 20c). That is, all test devices 20 have been written with individual identification codes, and the operation of automatically configuring the identification codes can be completed. In this way, for the serial bus 30 , each test device 20 has a unique identification code. And these test devices 20 with different identification codes can continue to be used to perform various tests on the unit under test 32 .

According to an implementation example, the original CPLD 24 of the test device 20 may further be configured with a secondary device register (not shown), which is used to indicate whether there is a secondary device corresponding to the test device 20 downstream of the serial bus 30. . After step S150 detects whether there is a secondary device in a manner such as enumeration, the monitoring module 34 can write the detected result into the secondary device of the test device 20 with a general purpose input and output (General Purpose I/O, GPIO) signal. Device buffer. And the master controller 22 of the test device 20 can read the secondary device register to know whether there is a secondary device corresponding to the test device 20 downstream of the serial bus 30 .

To sum up, the automatic configuration method of the identification code of the test device designs the identification register inside the existing CPLD chip in the test device, so it can save the additional electronic erasable and programmable Storage components such as a read-only memory (Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-OnlyMemory, EEPROM) or an external switch also save the wiring (layout) area of the existing method, thereby reducing the hardware cost. Moreover, the connection between the control sequence bus and the test device can be realized through the switch register, so as to cut off or connect the entire sequence bus, and the external EEPROM or hardware configuration circuit is omitted.

The automatic configuration method of the identification code of the test device can automatically detect all the test devices in sequence after the power is turned on and dynamically assign the identification code, so it is not necessary to burn the configuration file (fileimage) in the test device in advance. In addition, this method can support hot plug action without affecting normal access. And because it is not necessary to manually distinguish the difference between the test devices and then manually configure the identification code, the connection between the test equipment and the unit under test can be arranged arbitrarily.

Certainly, the present invention also can have other various embodiments, without departing from the spirit and essence of the present invention, those skilled in the art can make various corresponding changes and deformations according to the present invention, but these corresponding changes All changes and modifications should belong to the protection scope of the claims of the present invention.

Claims (9)

1. an automatic configuration method of an identification code of a test device, characterized in that, comprising: connecting a plurality of test devices to a serial bus, wherein each test device includes an identification register; detecting the first of the test devices connected to the serial bus as a working device; writing an identification code of the working device into the identification register of the working device; logically connecting the working device downstream of the serial bus; detecting whether there is a secondary device corresponding to the working device downstream of the serial bus; and When the secondary device exists, the secondary device is used as the new working device, and the above steps are repeated until all the test devices are written into the corresponding identification codes. 2 . The method for automatically configuring the identification code of a test device according to claim 1 , wherein the secondary device is the first test device connected to the serial bus after the working device. 3 . 3. The method for automatically configuring the identification code of the test device according to claim 1, wherein the identification register is configured in a complex programmable logic unit of each test device. 4. The method for automatically configuring the identification code of the test device according to claim 1, wherein the step of writing the identification code of the working device before the identification register of the working device further includes: starting Power up and initialize the test devices. 5. The method for automatically configuring the identification code of the test device according to claim 4, wherein the initial value of the identification register is 0. 6. The method for automatically configuring the identification code of the test device according to claim 1, wherein the step of logically connecting the working device with the downstream of the serial bus comprises: A value of a switch register of the working device is set to off to logically connect the secondary device of the working device with the serial bus. 7. The method for automatically configuring the identification code of the test device according to claim 6, wherein the switch register is configured in a complex programmable logic unit of each test device. 8. The method for automatically configuring the identification code of the test device according to claim 6, wherein the step of writing the identification code of the working device before the identification register of the working device further includes: starting power and initialize the test devices, and the initial value of the switch register is open. 9. The automatic configuration method of the identification code of test device according to claim 1, characterized in that, a complex programmable logic unit of each test device includes a secondary device register, which is used to represent the serial bus Whether there is this secondary device downstream corresponding to this working device.

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