Patent ID: 7486205

Claim:
In a test system for a device under test (DUT) that includes a host processor, a device input interface connected to an input of the DUT, a device output interface connected to an output of the DUT, a stimulus interface coupling the host processor to the device input interface and a response interface coupling the device output interface to the host processor, a method for transferring stimulus and response waveforms between the DUT and the host processor, wherein the DUT responds to the stimulus waveform to produce the response waveform, wherein the stimulus waveform is represented by a plurality of stimulus waveform samples in the host processor, the method comprising: at the host processor: compressing the plurality of stimulus waveform samples to form compressed stimulus waveform data; transferring the compressed stimulus waveform data to the stimulus interface; at the device input interface: retrieving the compressed stimulus waveform data from the stimulus interface; decompressing the compressed stimulus waveform data to form a decompressed stimulus waveform; providing the decompressed stimulus waveform as the stimulus waveform to the input of the DUT; at the device output interface: receiving the response waveform from the output of the DUT, wherein the response waveform is generated by the DUT in response to the stimulus waveform provided to the DUT; compressing a plurality of samples of the response waveform to form compressed response waveform data; transferring the compressed response waveform data to the response interface; at the host processor: retrieving the compressed response waveform data from the response interface; and decompressing the compressed response waveform data to form a decompressed response waveform.