Original Date: 05/17/1993
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

The Open Systems Engineering program at the Crane Division-Naval Surface Warfare Center develops conformance test procedures for verification of standard interfaces implemented on single board computers, electronic modules, backplane interconnects, and network interfaces. Strict compliance to open system standards increases the likelihood of interoperability between different products utilizing the same standard interfaces and therefore permitting successful communication and operation of the system. Conformance to open system standards decreases the risks associated with technology refreshes by reducing software work-arounds associated with unexpected interface performance.

The Crane Division-Naval Surface Warfare Center methodology for establishing conformance testing begins by monitoring standards established by various standards' organizations such as ANSI and IEEE. Conformance test procedures are then developed to determine whether the product under evaluation meets applicable requirements. Conformance testing is necessary due to both widely differing views on product development and vastly differing quality assurance programs at the various manufacturers of products. Initial efforts at the Crane Division for providing standardization for conformance testing were concentrated on the Futurebus+ backplane interconnect and the Fiber Distribution Data Interface local area network. After the successful completion of this effort, test procedures for additional products were developed which include Ethernet, Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), PCI, VME, and VSB. In addition, the Crane Division-Naval Surface Warfare Center will have on-site capability to perform required conformance testing in its Conformance Test Facility.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.