Implementing IEEE 1641 - resource drivers & COTS languages

IEEE Std. 1641 Signal & Test Definition [1] has been shown to bring portability and resistance to obsolescence through signal-based test definition in conjunction with signal-based resource description; with the UK MoD providing for a phased demonstration programme to show the Standard used in various test languages and test resource environments [5][6][7]. Intended to show complete systems, from test requirement to UUT, the UK MoD demonstration phases also provided an interface to control real test resources, but how was this achieved and how did IEEE 1641 support its implementation? Since the first publishing of IEEE 1641, the IEEE 1671 ATML (Automatic Test Mark-up Language) [8] group of standards has begun trial use. ATML makes significant use of IEEE 1641 for signal modelling; and, some its concepts, namely Test Description & Instrument Description, have been explored here. Using IEEE 1641´s signals, attribute types, connections & events, this paper proposes a method of automatically generating & maintaining interface definition libraries (IDL)from TSF (Test Signal Framework) libraries, for import/include into resource driver source code projects. Additionally, this is shown to ensure conformance to the TSF library; support early binding test languages (e.g. C#), thus compile-time error detection; and, productivity features like auto- complete & keyword help in test development environments.