IOTester® development tool

IOTester connects "embedded" I/O hardware to the PC and enables the hardware to be accessed and controlled directly from an ordinary PC program application written in C or C++.

Simple and easy to use; you do not have to be a PC programming wizard. Just focus on your I/O hardware functionality while programming and testing "embedded" hardware drivers on the PC, using common PC program development tools.
 

Make direct I/O operations on target hardware from a PC application

From your application source code you can directly do basic low-level access (RD, WR, AND, OR, XOR operations) on the target I/O hardware.

  • Compile your "embedded" application and driver source modules with a normal PC compiler.
  • Then run your "embedded" GUI application on the PC.
  • Test and debug you "embedded" program C / C++ code like a normal PC program.
  • Use the real I/O hardware:   display module controller,  touch screen controller,  frontpanel keys etc.

 
IOTester includes support for "embedded" target interrupt event handling by functions on the PC, for instance interrupts from a touch screen controller. Support for DMA-like block transfers between the target I/O hardware and data buffers in the PC application.
 
Ideal for testing your new GUI application source modules in PC mode while I/O operations take place on the real display controller and touch screen hardware.   All RAMTEX display driver library source codes can directly be used with IOTester.

Display module - FCC-FCB connector board - Connection cable - IOTester 8/16 bit parallel bus - Direct I/O access via USB connection to PC.

  • Display module connected via a normal 8 bit (or 16 bit) parallel bus on IOTester.
  • Display touch screen connected via IOTester I/O hardware devices (Touch controller, I2C, or SPI bus)
  • The display "target system" and IOTester are both powered via the PC-USB cable

Features: IOTester hardware

(Use links to jump to hardware descriptions)

Typical Application Areas:

Accelerated GUI development

Usually "embedded" GUI application development requires a number of iteration cycles to get the most attractive "look and feel" result.
Fast turnaround cycles during development, debugging and test are of paramount importance to achieve short development time.

Take advantage of powerful and low-cost PC development tools, and an unconstrained development environment to accelerate development and testing of application and I/O driver C source modules.

Education and training.
Simple to use. Easy to get started.

No Windows programming skills are needed to get started with programming and use of embedded I/O hardware from the PC.

Focus directly on the characteristics of I/O hardware and just write the "embedded" program in Standard C or C++

Neither an embedded processor system nor a target processor compiler is required to use IOTester.

Production test

Fast and flexible interface to production test equipment for small-scale production.
Up to 4 IOTesters can be used simultaneously by one test application running on the PC. A total of 180 pins are programmable for use as parallel buses, I2C or SPI buses, individual input or output pins, etc.

Early prototyping, Presentation and sales demos

Combine fast prototyping with "touch and feel" experience for your customers. Easy to install and run a demo using IOTester. Only a few files are needed. The ideal solution for sales presentations of I/O hardware devices like display modules and touch screens.