Patent ID: 7216182

Claim:
A channel for use in an automated test equipment, said channel comprising: a storage unit with an arbitration unit adapted for controlling accesses to a shared storage, said arbitration unit comprising: a set of interfaces adapted for connecting a plurality of units with said arbitration unit, wherein outgoing data streams are transmitted from the arbitration unit via respective ones of said interfaces to at least one of said units, and wherein incoming data streams are transmitted from at least one of said units via respective ones of said interfaces to the arbitration unit, and a control logic that is connected to each of said interfaces, said control unit being adapted for segmenting write data of incoming data streams in order to set up write accesses to said shared storage, for scheduling a sequence of at least one of write and read accesses to said shared storage, and for distributing read data obtained during said read accesses to outgoing data streams; a sequencer adapted for reading data from said storage unit, and for providing stimulus data to at least one DUT; and a result-processing unit adapted for evaluating result data obtained from said at least one DUT, and for writing data to said storage unit.