TVS and Embitel Collaboration

Software testing and hardware verification provider TVS opens office in India and takes part in a UK trade mission to the country.

UK company TVS, a supplier of software testing and hardware verification solutions, has opened an office in Bangalore, India. The office, which is a joint business venture with local company Embitel, aims to bring chip verification and validation services to the Indian market, but also offers TVS’s UK and European customers a safe route to off-shore development in chip design and verification.

TVS specialises in providing software testing and hardware verification solutions to customers in the software and electronics industry either by providing highly-qualified and experienced verification engineers for an in-house project, or by organising off-shore chip verification services through a blended delivery model.

“A number of companies recognise the benefits that off-shore development brings - mainly access to large numbers of highly educated, professional engineers - but find it difficult to find the right partners and then execute on their projects,” says Mike Bartley, CEO of TVS. “Managing off-shore development can be a challenging process, but at TVS we have many years experience of handling such projects for our clients. Now with our new Indian office we are validating our long-standing relationship with the country and our confidence in the skills and expertise of its engineers. Our blended delivery model provides the local support to companies in Europe along with access to the talent pool in India.”

The company is already executing projects in Bangalore and Embitel has a good reputation in bringing embedded software development services to that market.  

“This joint venture will benefit the customers of both companies,” said Sharad Bairathi, managing partner at Embitel. “Our joint partnership provides a fuller range of expertise and gives us the ability to take on full product testing through use of hardware and software expertise as well as complete product development.”

TVS recently identified several major opportunities in the European market and is now recruiting into its Indian office to service those opportunities.

For more information, please contact:

Mike Bartley, CEO, Test and Verification Solutions (TVS)

Tel: +44 (0)7796 307958; mike@tandvsolns.co.uk

About TVS: TVS (Bristol, UK) delivers an independent testing service that not only reduces costs and time-to-market, but also improves product quality. TVS combines skills and experience in software testing, hardware verification and outsourcing to provide customers with an efficient, well-managed, quality assurance service. The company provides both consultancy and execution services using experienced engineering resources in several locations around the world. TVS customers include ARM, Panasonic, Dialog, DisplayLink, Icera, ClearSpeed, XMOS and Gnodal. Its technology partners include Cadence and Mentor Graphics.

www.tandvsolns.co.uk

About Embitel: Embitel has extensive experience in full lifecycle of embedded development and testing of real time complex solutions for global customers. Its technology partners include Texas Instruments, ARM, Samtec, CMD, Comlet, escrypt and Microchip. Embitel is also rated among TOP 21 innovators in India by NASSCOM.

www.embitel.com

802.11 Stack

CAN Controller Validation

Requirement

Functional validation of the CAN controller of an ARM cored Integrated GPS chip 

System Overview

Our Client’s decision to outsource CAN validation was based on the premise that 'the more testing you do; the better'. With finite resources and specialized knowledge in the GPS domain, the client could at best conduct only high level testing for this Automotive protocol. Embitel’s expertise in the Embedded Automotive domain and our reputation for providing high quality validation services made Embitel the choice of Vendor.


To carry out the functional validation of the CAN controller, Embitel proposed a comprehensive test plan with more than 100 unique test cases of the following:

• Initialization of controller
• Baud rate verifications
• Various operating modes of the controller
• Error counters
• Transmission / Reception of CAN messages
• Interrupt handling of CAN controller
• Microcontroller specific extended features

Implementation

The CAN network simulation was done using SamDia and HS+ interfaces. Test stubs for activating various features of the controller were prepared using uVision IDE.

After four weeks of intense testing, we discovered some serious issues in Baud rate synchronization and Sleep mode. We also found a few issues in the test mode of the CAN controller. We investigated the problem further and narrowed it down to the CAN IP (our client had bought the CAN IP from another vendor). Though this IP was expected to perform in all the scenarios, it however had certain limitations.

Embitel was able to verify the IP and identify its limitations. This input from Embitel was indeed timely and it helped the client fix these defects well before the release date. It was an excellent learning for the Embitel team and also a very good reassurance for the client about Embitel’s capabilities in the field of testing and validation.

Tools

• SamDia and HS+ interface for simulating CAN nodes
• uVision IDE for creating test stubs

Contact us for 802.11 Stack Solutions