Selecting the right data storage approach for an automatic test system

When developing an automatic test system, data storage is many times an afterthought. Engineers spend months or even years evaluating different hardware options, software development environments, and approaches to overall test system architecture. However, little forethought is given on how to best store the data acquired from these systems to optimize the post-processing and reporting of the results. Without proper data storage, issues can quickly arise that limit the ability to analyze measurement data, exchange technical information and results, and derive decisions from current and past tests. This paper will examine several common data storage choices including ASCII, binary, XML and databases, and the advantages and disadvantages of each approach in an automatic test system. This paper will discuss these storage formats and the tradeoffs made with each in an automatic test system. The paper will also propose a new hybrid file format and discuss how it can be integrated into existing systems.