Western Digital Corporation

John M Tillson

James K Benning

David J Edwards

An automatic test system for both production and trouble shooting evaluation of various computer peripheral controller devices. The automatic test system includes a central processing unit, a receiver card adapted to receive a particular type of peripheral controller-under-test and a peripheral emulator. The automatic test system may be employed in the testing of a wide range of peripheral controller devices by utilizing differing receiver cards adapted to each specific kind of peripheral under test. In operation command and data signals are sent from the processor to the controller-under-test through the receiver card, causing the controller-under-test to send modified command and data signals to the peripheral emulator. The central processor then accesses memory in the peripheral emulator to ascertain if the controller-under-test sent the proper commands and data. Testing is further carried out by the central processor loading both normal and abnormal data and status signals into the peripheral emulator and subsequently instructing the unit-under-test to extract the data from the emulator and submit it to the central processor.

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Mission Viejo, CA, United States of America

John M Tillson