Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[chipguy]

Well how else would they characterize it?

Perhaps. But reading through the J973EP's specs
and description at Teradyne's web site gives me the
impression that this machine is a production tester.
Engineering testers don't have quad gang test head
capability and their vendors don't talk about
switching methodologies on the fly to minimize
"test cost".

Also keep in mind AMD's test engineering resources
and the volume of A64 devices they produce. Even
with a one minute average final test time, running
just one eight hour shift a day, five days a week
on a single quad head J973 could process half a
million devices a year. Go to two shifts a day, 7
days a week and that's over 1.3m devices a year.

What's the NRE cost to design, characterize, and
qualify a BIST based HT test procedure on older
ATE? How would that compare to simply buying a
second and third J973 and so on?