As can be seen from this Figure, the first step is for the communication bus to detect the FUT (step 1,Fig. 11). This detection process enables automatic identification of the FUT, due to the fact that each FUT Board sends two hardware identifiers which are read at the Mother Board and subsequently sent to the PC. An identifier serves to identify the kind of encapsulation used, and consequently, the type of FPGA. If the bitstreams for this FUT have already been generated, these files can now be downloaded (step 2, Fig. 11). If this is not the case, the bitstream generation process is activated in order to create the corresponding files using the values supplied by the database (step 3, Fig. 11). If downloading takes place correctly, the USB channel is enabled to establish communication between the PC and the Mother Board,in order to receive the test results (step 4, Fig. 11). Once all test results have been received, the different test process reports are generated (step 5, Fig. 11), and the FPGA test is complete. It should be
noted that if on sending the test patterns the communication bus test fails, the test is terminated and the FPGA evaluated is classified as not apt, since the pins and/or IOBs associated with the communication bus are defective and it is not therefore possible to conduct the test.