Study on real-time test script in automated test equipment

In this article we propose a generic test script for real-time embedded software system testing, which has been applied to ATE (automated test equipment). After a summary of the theory about embedded software automated test based on test script, the design philosophy and implementation details are described. We have chosen an ATE and integrated python interpreter into it. Modules for test control are developed on base of python's expandability. To ensure real-time, we have trimmed python interpreter's source code. This test script has advantages of simple, flexible, controllable, reusable and portable. The use of third party python tools results in decreased test script development time. A number of real-time embedded systems are tested by this script technology. Both the correctness and the real-time performance are validated.