Compaq 6000 Quality Testing on HP Business PCs - Page 2

In our quest to continuously improve the customer experience, HP uses a disciplined and methodical development and test process. We verify that each new desktop platform meets or exceeds HP quality standards for structural integrity, reliability, and compatibility. This white paper describes the various forms of testing performed by HP engineering when developing a new HP Business Desktop PC platform. Importance of Desktop Testing Business Desktop PCs represent a large portion of the worldwide computer shipments and are often the workhorses of business. As such, it is critical that they be durable and able to support a vast array of operating systems, languages, applications, and add-in options. Helping to ensure this compatibility and flexibility requires extensive, well-engineered testing. In this industry, quality is a differentiator. Business customers recognize the value of a more reliable PC, and that is a major factor in their purchase selection. The time and resources we invest in our testing yield benefits to them and to HP. A well-tested product can lead to a more efficient factory, lower costs, fewer failures in the field, and more satisfied customers. The PC business is a dynamic industry in which new technologies are created and adopted. It is imperative that we have a robust test process that can react to new technologies, verify their quality, integrate them into our product lines, and get them to market quickly. The following sections provide more details of the HP test tool development and capability and the types of testing performed. These sections also provide a closer look at the investment of time in our test process and how we track the results of tests conducted on HP Business Desktop PCs. Test Tool Development An essential element of the HP test process is our attention and dedication to continuously improving the tests and processes used during product development. Two such areas of concentration are Hardware Evaluation Test Development and Software Image Development. Hardware Evaluation Test Development designs tests to help ensure that hardware components conform to published functional engineering design specifications. Software Image Development architects image databases, processes, and tools used to test and deliver software images on business desktop products. Hardware Evaluation Test Development HP's Evaluation Test Development (ETD) team designs and builds specialized hardware and software used to ensure that PCs meet HP's high standards for design quality and functionality. These tools test the hardware components for conformance to published functional engineering design specifications. This engineering organization, established in 1988, is shared across other business units at HP. The ETD tools have evolved over years of development, and are available to all HP design teams, manufacturing sites, development partners, and HP field engineers for use exclusively on HP products. This test capability is unique in the PC industry and enables HP to thoroughly evaluate computer designs from firmware to silicon, as well as improve quality and reduce manufacturing costs. Hardware and Software design evaluation tools ETD validation tools include both low level functional tests which target particular subsystems in isolation, and system stress tests which test nearly every subsystem in combination in order to discover any undesirable interactions. The test tools are designed to support identification, isolation, and debugging of issues so that the final system designs are verified to meet HP's required functional, electrical and mechanical standards. 2