Lockheed Martin Team Integrates State-of-the-art Technologies to Conduct First Ever Demonstration of a Remote Controlled Test and Fault Isolation System

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 17, 2002--In a recent on-line exercise, a team of Lockheed Martin engineers from coast to coast successfully demonstrated a remote controlled, prototype test and fault isolation system. The development could lead to substantial productivity improvements and cost savings throughout a wide range of the company's programs.

Using cutting edge technologies, engineers at Lockheed Martin's Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) facilities in Kings Bay, Ga. and Bangor, Wash. used the company Intranet to control a test system located in Sunnyvale, Calif., and performed remote testing and troubleshooting on a printed circuit board (PCB). Currently, engineers must travel long distances to and from these locations to perform the necessary testing and troubleshooting.

During the demonstration, the engineers were able to test for circuit continuity on the board, detect failures automatically, and isolate faults down to the pin level -- all from a remote site. Engineers were also able to remotely "probe" the circuit board in real-time using an on-line schematic diagram of the PCB as a graphical user interface (GUI) to measure actual voltages at component pins as well as measuring the values of discrete components with a high degree of accuracy.

"The capability to perform testing and fault isolation of electronic systems in real time from a remote site can greatly improve system supportability, while at the same time achieve significant cost savings for us as well as industry as a whole," said Joe Woo, Lockheed Martin's Advanced FBM Integrated Product Team Leader for the Design-For-Test (DFT) project.

The demonstration represented one of several Lockheed Martin-funded Independent Research and Development (IRAD) initiatives designed to provide more technologically advanced and low-cost solutions for its customers. This technology opens up endless possibilities for other applications such as debugging during environmental testing, on-orbit troubleshooting, multi-site engineering collaboration, and remote training.

While remote testing and diagnostics is not a new concept, (Information Technology (IT) organizations have been doing it for some time to provide remote support for desktop computers.) performing hardware diagnostics of an electronic system by "probing" the circuit remotely without requiring custom designs has never been done before. By incorporating industry standards with commercial-off-the-self (COTS) hardware and software, Lockheed Martin developed a low-cost prototype system that can deliver this capability.

The Design-for-Test project is an industry collaboration project involving Lockheed Martin, National Semiconductor, LogicVision (Nasdaq:LGVN - news), ASSET Intertech, and Ohio Design Automation.

The prototype remote controlled test system was developed by Lockheed Martin by integrating a number of state-of-the-art technologies, with the key enabling technology being the "industry's first ever" mixed-signal integrated circuit fully incorporating the new IEEE Standard 1149.4 Mixed-signal Test Bus. The chip, named D4Access, was designed and developed jointly by National Semiconductor (Portland, ME) and LogicVision (San Jose, CA) and fabricated by National Semiconductor. Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space Operations Advanced FBM Program DFT team designed and developed a printed circuit board to evaluate the chip and developed the application software for the new technology. Another Lockheed Martin company, Engineering Process Improvement (EPI) Center (Camden, NJ) served in the capacity of an advisory role and coordinated the industry team effort.

The application software developed by Lockheed Martin utilized an innovative approach to integrate a number of COTS software products into an intuitive test environment. The test control and diagnostic software were developed using the ASSET-Intertech (Richardson, TX) boundary-scan development tool. The GUI is adapted from Intercomm, a design browser from OHIO Design Automation (Nashua, NH). The application software that links all the different pieces of software together was developed with National Instruments LabVIEW. The remote access connection is established using another commercial software, Microsoft NetMeeting.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, headquartered in Denver, Colo., is one of the major operating units of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Space Systems designs, develops, tests, manufactures and operates a variety of advanced technology systems for military, civil and commercial customers. Chief products include space launch and ground systems, remote sensing and communications satellites for commercial and government customers, advanced space observatories and interplanetary spacecraft, fleet ballistic missiles and missile defense systems.

For more information about Lockheed Martin Space Systems, see the website at http://lmms.external.lmco.com.

     Lockheed Martin
     Steve Tatum, 408/742-7531
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     stephen.o.tatum@lmco.com