Verigy CEO stays on message, but avoids key trend.

Implications: Keith Barnes expounds on the advantages of the single, scalable platform, but in talking about how Verigy continues to drive down the cost of test misses the key factor causing tester price compression.

Analysis: The most expensive part of ATE test equipment by function is the digital subsystem, both in terms of vendor COGS and customer price.  This cost has been driven down principally by reduced external testing requirements from new chip designs, effected by combinations of built in self test (BIST) and design for manufacturing techniques - resulting in a "commodity" 200MHz digital pin being offered by every ATE vendor for their test platforms that can satisfy those reduced requirements.  The higher level of integration that Keith mentions is cost advantageous for large devices, or for testing multiple devices in parallel, but not all mixed signal devices lend themselves to high levels of parallel test.  Smaller numbers of instruments per card that allow more focused configurations and cheap digital pins are more effective at lowering cost for these devices.  Examples of these are wireless (especially those including RF) and consumer devices.