Patent ID: 7327816

Claim:
A method of operating an automatic test system comprising at digital pin circuit and an analog instrument, the method comprising: a) generating with a timing circuit a first clock signal; b) with the digital pin circuit, generating or measuring a digital test signal at times referenced to the first clock signal; and c) with the analog instrument, generating or measuring an analog signal at times referenced to a digital clock signal of programmable frequency synchronized to the first clock signal, wherein generating the digital clock comprises: i) providing a plurality of streams of digital values, each value having a predetermined number of bits, and each stream representing samples of the periodic signal to be generated; ii) interleaving values derived from the plurality of streams to produce a final stream of digital values; iii) converting the final stream to an analog signal in a digital to analog converter having an input receiving digital values with less than the predetermined number of bits; and iv) producing the digital clock from the analog signal.