`Pay-per-use’ promises to lower board test costs

OL3.FEB–Hewlett-Packard Co.–WY

`Pay-per-use' promises to lower board test costs

Hewlett-Packard pioneers a concept aimed at the cost-versus-capability tradeoff

When purchasing test equipment, users are often confronted with a classic dilemma: do they save money and buy somewhat less test capability than they need, or do they ignore cost and pay whatever it takes to fully meet their test needs. Now, thanks to a novel concept being pioneered by Hewlett-Packard, users of board testers are spared these difficult cost-versus-capability tradeoff decisions.

A pay-per-use board tester–an industry first according to the company, Hewlett-Packard (Palo Alto, CA)–provides users with a full range of digital in-circuit and combinational test capabilities at the cost of an entry-level unpowered (opens and shorts) board tester. The tester, the HP 3070 pay-per-use board test system, is a full-configured HP combinational test system that normally costs about $350,000. However, it is now available at about the same price as an HP 3072 unpowered test system–starting at $132,000.
Here's where the pay-per-use arrangement comes in. For unpowered opens testing, users pay no additional costs to HP. But, if users need to perform digital in-circuit or combinational testing, they do so on a pay-as-you-use basis. Different levels of testing are accessible through an HP test credit button, which costs $5,000 and works much like a subway fare card.
The user inserts the button into a tamper-proof lock box on the system. The system debits test credits at different rates as it runs various levels of test. Higher-performance tests consume more test credits than basic tests. No credits are consumed at all with unpowered opens tests. As a rough idea of costs, a board that requires 30 seconds of in-circuit testing would run about $0.25.
Pay-as-you-use testing has several advantages. The main one, obviously, is the ability to match testing costs to production requirements. For example, there's no need for the expense of a high-cost system that would be used only part of the time. Nor is there a need to purchase multiple test systems to meet differing test needs. The HP 3070 pay-per-use board test system is available in 648, 1293, 1944, and 2592 node versions, with the 1296 node version costing $132,000. For further information, call 800-452-4844 ext. 8024.
–Warren Yates

CAPTION:

Different levels of testing are accessible via a test credit button in this new board tester from Hewlett-Packard.