Want to test PC busses (ISA, EISA, PCI, etc)

[JWT]

I want to test the comm on a PC card using NI products. Busses include ISA, EISA, PCI, etc. Any suggestions on how to get started?

[K C]

Hi,

I think you have to tell a bit more on what you want to test. 

In your title I read that you want to test a PC bus (just a backplane or ??) and in your message I read that you want to test the communication with a PC card on several busses.

[JWT]

Thanks for the reply. I test/repair industrial electronic circuit boards. Currently I am working on a board that has an EISA edge connector (male side, so it fits into the motherboard). I would like to test this board from the edge connector to make sure that it is functional. Normally, I could power up the board on the bench and using basic tools (o-scope, etc) I might see some signals, but I would like to achieve a much higher degree of testing. Since this is a common bus, I was hoping that I could use some type of NI ATE to develop a program that tests this bus. If I could test EISA, then I could probably find a way to test the other cards that fit into pc motherboards.  

[K C]

OK that is clear, you want to test daughter boards.

Most of the time the testing is not the problem but the faultfinding is.

If you want to test a PC board you can power it up like you said and see if it is running. Perhaps the board has a BIST which can tell you about the internal status of the board.

To test the bus you could use a digital I/O board. For ISA I know this can work but for EISA and PCI I am not sure if this is possible because the digital I/O is slow compared to the timing of the bus.

But even if it is possible you should always test the board in a PC to be sure it is also working on full speed.

I think it is easier to test those boards with a PC and make your own test programs running in a DOS environment. That is what I did 20 years ago.

I don't think there is a ready to use test setup for daughter boards for these buses.