Ridgetop Group Partners with SiliconAid Solutions on IEEE P1687 and IEEE 1149.1-2013 Standards

TUCSON, Ariz. -- August 27, 2013 -- Ridgetop Group, Inc., and SiliconAid Solutions announced jointly today they have partnered on emerging new industrial testability standards, IEEE P1687 and IEEE 1149.1-2013, and developed a system to embed Ridgetop Group’s SJ BIST™ board-level interconnection reliability monitor. SJ BIST is a patented test IP product that detects interconnect faults between electronic devices, such as between FPGAs and printed circuit boards.

Ridgetop and SiliconAid applied SiliconAid’s IEEE 1149.1-2013 and P1687 tool flows to develop compliant access to SJ BIST IP. Ridgetop has become a key driver partner/customer to test and verify the SiliconAid IEEE 1149.1-2013 and P1687 flows. This new implementation leverages enhanced automation, reuse, and debug capabilities of embedded chip instruments. In the past, a significant manual effort has been required to generate and then verify that embedded instruments were integrated and verified correctly in the customer design. Test pattern generation also had to be handled by the IP integrator. Using SiliconAid’s new flow, a custom testbench can be generated automatically for every design in which the IP is used. Chip-level ATE patterns can also be generated automatically.

According to Andrew Levy, Ridgetop’s VP of Business Development, “SJ BIST offers a solution in detecting troublesome intermittencies. We have worked with SiliconAid to take Ridgetop’s SJ BIST Test IP Core through their P1687 flow. Now that we have developed and demonstrated the ability to convert legacy patterns to PDL patterns that can be applied with a P1687-compliant interface, our customers will enjoy even faster and more flexible deployment of SJ BIST to meet their needs for highly reliable boards and systems.”

Jim Johnson, SiliconAid President and CTO, added, “SiliconAid Solutions is proud to partner with companies like Ridgetop Group that have complex internal IP that the new standards are designed to address. The Plug and Play approach used by these new standards is a perfect fit for an IP provider like Ridgetop to improve quality andhelp the chip integrators. Leveraging these new standards to improve reuse, automate the flow, and verify compliance will dramatically reduce the cost of test and verification. SiliconAid has made it a priority to continue to develop and enhance our existing tools to be the best in class.”

About SiliconAid Solutions

SiliconAid Solutions, Inc. is recognized as a leading provider of Design for Test Consulting and for world class chip-focused JTAG software solutions to validate, verify, and utilize IEEE JTAG-related industry standards. SiliconAid has corporate headquarters located in Austin, Texas and was founded in 2001. The Consulting Product Group has been recognized for comprehensive support of all standard EDA DFT solutions. The exhaustive chip-level validation, verification, and debug of IEEE JTAG-compliant implementations is based on over 20 years of testing and thousands of designs from multiple satisfied worldwide semiconductor companies.

About Ridgetop Group, Inc.

Established in 2000, Ridgetop Group is a Tucson, Arizona-based firm that produces electronic solutions for harsh environments and challenging applications. The firm is qualified as an aerospace supplier under its AS9100C certification, and became a Category 1A Trusted Supplier under the DoD’s Trusted Foundry Program in 2010. A privately held firm, Ridgetop operates two divisions in Tucson, and has a related subsidiary firm based in Europe near the European Space Agency facilities. For more information, please visit Ridgetop’s website at www.RidgetopGroup.com or contact Milena Thompson at +1 520.742.3300.