Electronics companies want to bring increasingly complex products to market quickly, but they must do so with fewer resources and at lower costs. As a result, engineers must also create test systems quickly and be able to easily adapt these systems to new modules as needed. To help address these challenges, the electronics industry is moving toward open-standards-based test tools. Agilent Technologies is supporting this move with its Agilent Open Program. It offers test instrumentation based on industry standards while addressing test needs across the product development lifecycle--from research and development through manufacturing.

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The Agilent Open program supports this move through three key approaches:

• System-ready instruments that come packaged with software that automatically configures interfaces, discovers other instruments regardless of the manufacturer, and verifies instrument connections. These features reduce test-setup time to minutes.
• By supplying several standard interface options, including General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB), LAN and USB ports, Agilent Open instruments simplify and accelerate the process of connecting test equipment.
• By providing an open programming environment, engineers are given the flexibility to develop test systems in programming languages they already know. This enables them to easily transition into Excel--or popular programming languages such as Visual Basic, LabVIEW, Agilent VEE Pro, and Visual C++, letting them focus on the results of test devices instead of the code.

As technology moves forward, Agilent Open's support of industry standards will enable future developments, such as modular, LAN-based instrumentation.