UB Lab Offers Training In Computer-Chip Testing

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The first Electronic Test Design Automation Lab in Western New York has been established at UB to train students in the area of computer-chip testing.

The lab is sponsored by IBM's Test Design Automation Group based in Endicott, N.Y.

Primarily designed as an educational tool for undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences, the new state-of-the-art facility also will be available to UB researchers and others in the community who want to train themselves in the area of computer-chip testing.

"The reputation of UB as a fine research-and-education institution and the common interests of the VLSI (very large scale integration) Test group of UB and the Test Design Automation Group of IBM played a key role in establishing this partnership," said Frank Urban, test design automation manager at IBM.

The lab features an IBM RS6000 Powerserver and 4 Risc PowerPC clients, as well as IBM's commercial TestBench software.

Plans are underway to expand the lab to 10 workstations and offer other IBM commercial computer-aided-design tools, which would allow the Department of Computer Science and Engineering to offer additional courses in VLSI design.

The lab's primary use will be for students in UB's VLSI Testing Course, in which students learn how to test computer chips that they fabricate in their classes.

These skills will give students a clear advantage over other candidates when they begin looking for jobs in the field, said Shambhu J. Upadhyaya, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science and engineering at UB and director of the lab.

"UB graduates will be that much more attractive because they will already have received the necessary training and experience working with these machines and the software," he said.

At the same time, he said, the facility can offer to other SUNY campuses and current and future high-tech companies in the region the opportunity to learn the concepts of testing their computer chips on the best equipment available.

The new facility also will be used to help train IBM employees of the Endicott testing group through distance-learning courses.

Individuals or companies interested in using the laboratory should contact Upadhyaya at 645-3180, ext. 133, or by email at shambhu@eng.buffalo.edu