Patent ID: 7596722

Claim:
A multi-cell disk drive test system that provides for asynchronous software module updates, comprising: a test platform that includes a plurality of cells, each cell being configured to receive and to provide communication with a disk drive, the plurality of cells being segregated into a plurality of groups; a test manager computer assigned to each group of cells, each test manager computer being coupled to an assigned group of cells to administer at least of one of a plurality of test steps to disk drives loaded in the assigned group of cells; a test coordinator computer configured to communicate with each test manager computer and to store a plurality of updated software module versions; wherein after a disk drive is determined to be in an appropriate cell, the test manager computer to: determine a test step to be performed on the disk drive and a cell software module currently stored for the cell; determine if an updated cell software module version associated with the test step is stored on the test coordinator computer, and if so, download the updated cell software module version; update the test manager computer with the updated cell software module version; and store a cell identifier for the cell, the version number of the updated cell software module, and the test steps supported by the cell.