Advantest Corp. and Teradyne Inc. separately launched competitive efforts to drive standards and open architectures in ATE. And not to be outdone, NPTest Inc.--formerly known as Schlumberger Semiconductor Solutions--is also moving full speed ahead with its own ATE standard.

Other ATE makers, including Agilent Technologies Inc., dismissed those efforts, calling them self-serving at best. Still others remain on the fence, it was noted.

For years, however, ATE vendors and IC makers have been talking about hardware standards--and for good reason. On the test floor, chip makers and chip-testing subcontractors use a wide range of "proprietary" testers and third-party instruments from an assortment of vendors. In theory, IC makers could lower the cost of test by deploying an "open ATE architecture" in terms of third-party instruments, bus structures, and communication protocols.

But the problem with the ATE standards being proposed right now are clear: the ATE vendors themselves are separately pushing their own "proprietary" testers as an open solution.

Some even wonder if the market really needs an ATE standard in the first place. "There's not a crying need for an ATE standard, but there's some value," said Ashok Belani, president of NPTest. But an ATE standard could "make SoC happen," Belani told SBN.

Still, not everyone is embracing the concept of an ATE consortium or standards, that is, as defined by Advantest and Teradyne. This includes ATE powerhouse Agilent Technologies Inc., which dismissed the Advantest/Intel-led ATE consortium.

"People have been talking about open standards in the ATE business for quite awhile," said Jack Trautman, senior vice president and general of Agilent's Automated Test Group, which involves both the company's board- and chip-level ATE products. "I think standards work well in high-volume markets, like PCs," Trautman said. "The ATE business is not a high-volume market."

Agilent's own tester is an "open solution," he said. The company's 93000 tester is a single platform that tests a range of complex SoCs, he pointed out.

Other ATE makers are taking a wait-and-see approach in the area of open standards and consortiums, including Credence Systems Corp. But even Credence remains leery of consortiums to drive standards, especially ATE. "The danger with a consortium is that you could kill innovation," said Glyn Davies, vice president of corporate marketing for the Fremont, Calif.-based company.

Advantest-Intel ATE consortium

Still, the question remains: What's behind these consortiums?

For years, chip makers have complained about rising test costs. Intel, for example, claims that the cost of testing a device could one day exceed the cost of manufacturing the chip itself. In fact, Intel has declared war on test, causing it to move its internal chip-testing strategy from a functional to a "distributed" methodology.

The move prompted Intel to work with NPTest to co-develop a low-cost, "structural tester." For months, NPTest has been shipping the tester to Intel, which uses it to test its Pentium 4 microprocessors.

More recently, according to sources, Intel signed a big contract with Japanese ATE giant Advantest Corp. Advantest is building from scratch a specialized, low-cost "functional tester," reportedly for use in testing high-end graphics chips, sources said.

The contract also reportedly calls for a tester with an "open architecture," enabling a plug-and-play effect with third-party test instruments from Wavecrest and others, according to sources.

It's a "win-win" deal for both Advantest and Intel. Intel can dictate the specifications of a tester for a specific requirement. Meanwhile, Advantest has dominated the memory test business, but has fallen behind in the logic and SoC markets. The deal with Intel will give it a much-needed boost in the non-memory markets, according to analysts.

Then, however, the "win-win" deal takes a new and surprising spin. Advantest and Intel reportedly decided to transform a commercial venture into a standards game, by forming an ATE consortium, sources said.

On the first day of the Semicon West show on Wednesday, for example, Advantest, Intel, Motorola, National Instruments, Wavecrest and others announced an ATE consortium to propel new and open standards in this arena.

The new ATE effort--dubbed the Semiconductor Test Consortium-- is expected to focus on supporting the development of the so-called "Semiconductor Test Open Architecture." The new framework is designed to lower the cost of test and enable open test solutions that offer true hardware and software interoperability.

Currently, the Japanese company has active participation from half of the world's top 10 semiconductor companies involved in a working group committed to launching the consortium. "The intent is to have an initiative for an open architecture," said Nick Konidaris, president and CEO of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Advantest America Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of the company.

Teradyne expands "initiative"

Then, on Thursday, Teradyne disclosed plans to expand its own "initiative" to drive a standard and an open architecture in the ATE business. The company's expanded "initiative" includes an unprecedented move to open up its low-cost ATE architecture to third parties--and competitors.

In May, Teradyne announced the "Open Architecture Initiative," which enables third parties to develop and market instrumentation options--built around the company's new Integra Flex line of ATE. Rolled out earlier this year, the Integra Flex is a 200-MHz tester, based on a new, modular "Universal Slot" architecture. This technology enables the tester "to support any instrument in any slot" within the system, according to the company.

Now, the company appears to have expanded its initiative. It plans to open up the architecture for the Integra Flex to third parties, including the instrumentation providers.

It may also open up the architecture and work with rival ATE companies, said Phil Smith, strategic marketing manager for Teradyne. "We're opening the system fully," he said. "We're enabling an open architecture."

And not to be outdone, NPTest is developing its own version of an ATE standard and is reportedly working with the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) trade organization.

NPTest declined to comment on the details. But the company will make its efforts known in the near future, said Belani.