AMD uses Sapphire for chip testing

Chip manufacturer AMD said this week that it has selected Credence Systems Corporation as its test system of record.

AMD will use Credence's Sapphire platform for all its advanced processor testing requirements, from development and characterisation through to high-volume production testing.

Early collaboration efforts resulted in an AMD Opteron processor-based workstation controller option for the Sapphire platform, achieving up to 40 per cent improvement in test efficiency, the manufacturer said.

AMD claimed that the Sapphire system delivers configuration flexibility with test capabilities optimised from DC to multi-gigahertz, with fully encapsulated instruments that can be inserted into any slot in the test head.

"AMD has chosen to migrate all its next-generation 65nm testing requirements, from debug through high volume production test, to the Sapphire system," said Daryl Ostrander, senior vice president of logic technology and manufacturing at AMD.

"It is an extremely robust, flexible and scalable system that delivers the performance that we need at a very low cost."