Apparatus for testing digital display driver and method thereof
View Patent ↗In a specific embodiment of the present invention, a graphics device generates digital output data in response to a known input data. The resulting digital output data has an expected circular redundancy check (CRC) value. The generated digital output data is provided to a digital graphics output port associated with the graphics controller, which is thereby transmitted to a test apparatus over a digital graphics cable. The test apparatus performs an analysis on the received digital graphics data. The analysis results are transmitted back to the graphics device over a serial link of the digital display cable. The graphics device receives the transmitted analysis data, which is subsequently used to determine if the graphics device is operating properly. This determination may be made the graphics device, or by a host system for further analysis.
1. A method of testing digital graphics data, the method comprising the steps of:
providing digital graphics data having an expected characteristic value, to a digital graphics port of a graphics controller under test and which is coupled to a computer via a bus;
receiving, at a test apparatus, the digital graphics data from the digital graphics port of the graphics controller under test;
calculating at the test apparatus, a characteristic value that is based upon the digital graphics data; and
sending the calculated characteristic from a serial data port of the test apparatus to a serial data interface of the digital graphics port of the graphics controller.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the expected characteristic is a calculated value based upon the predetermined type of digital graphics data.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the predetermined type of digital graphics data includes at least one of a red, green, and blue color component.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the expected characteristic is a circular redundancy check (CRC) value.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined type of digital graphics data is selectable.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the step of providing the calculated characteristic from the test apparatus to a serial interface includes providing the calculated characteristic to the computer; and
the step of comparing the calculated characteristic to the expected characteristic by the graphics controller is replaced by the step of:
comparing the calculated characteristic to the expected characteristic by at least one of: the computer and the graphics controller.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the step of receiving, at a test apparatus includes the step of: receiving at a test apparatus, the graphics data at a rate greater than 100 MHz; and
the steps of calculating at the test apparatus, and the step of providing the calculated characteristic, are performed in real time with respect to the step of receiving at a test apparatus.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphics output port includes an output port for a flat panel display.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the serial interface is associated with the graphics output port.
10. A method of testing digital graphics data, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving digital graphics data at a graphics port of graphics test apparatus, said graphics port having a serial data interface;
determining a characteristic value upon the reception of the digital graphics data at said graphics test apparatus; and
transferring the characteristic value from the graphics test apparatus to a graphics controller over the serial data interface of the graphics port of the graphics test apparatus.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the step of providing includes the graphics port being part of a digital graphics interconnect port.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the digital graphics interconnect is based on a Digital Flat Panel interconnect standard interconnect.
13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the steps of determining and providing occur in real-time with respect to the step of receiving.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the step of receiving includes receiving graphics data at a clock rate of at least 100 MHz.
15. An apparatus for testing digital graphics data, the system comprising:
a connector to receive the digital graphics data sent from a graphics controller;
a graphics data analyzer module having an input coupled to the connector, and an output, said graphics data analyzer being capable of calculating a value from digital graphics data it receives through the connector; and
a serial bus interface control module having an input coupled to the output of the graphics data analyzer module, and a serial data port coupled to the connector, said serial bus interface control module being capable of sending serial data from said serial data port.
16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the serial data port is coupled to the connector to transmit serial data based upon the digital graphics protocol.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the digital graphics protocol is a Digital Flat Panel standard.
18. The system of claim 15 , further comprising a power supply terminal to receive power from a peripheral component interface (PCI) bus.