Parse::STDF - Module for parsing files in Standard Test Data Format

Standard Test Data Format (STDF) is a widely used standard file format for semiconductor test information. It is a commonly used format produced by automatic test equipment (ATE) platforms from companies such as LTX-Credence, Roos Instruments, Teradyne, Advantest, and others.

A STDF file is compacted into a binary format according to a well defined specification originally designed by Teradyne. The record layouts, field definitions, and sizes are all described within the specification. Over the years, parser tools have been developed to decode this binary format in several scripting languages, but as of yet nothing has been released for Perl6.

Parse::STDF is a first attempt. It is an object oriented module containing methods which invoke APIs of an underlying C library called libstdf (see http://freestdf.sourceforge.net/). libstdf performs the grunt work of reading and parsing binary data into STDF records represented as C-structs. These structs are in turn referenced as Perl6 class objects.

SYNOPSIS

use Parse::STDF;

try
{
  my $s = Parse::STDF.new( stdf => $stdf );
  while $s.get_record
  {
    given ( $s.recname )
    {
      when "MIR"
      {
        my $mir = $s.mir; 
        printf("Started At: %s\n", $mir.START_T.ctime);
        printf("Station Number: %d\n", $mir.STAT_NUM);
        printf("Station Mode: %s\n", $mir.MODE_COD.chr);
        printf("Retst_Code: %s\n", $mir.RTST_COD.chr);
        printf("Lot: %s\n", $mir.LOT_ID.cnstr);
        printf("Part Type: %s\n", $mir.PART_TYP.cnstr);
        printf("Node Name: %s\n", $mir.NODE_NAM.cnstr);
        printf("Tester Type: %s\n", $mir.TSTR_TYP.cnstr);
        printf("Program: %s\n", $mir.JOB_NAM.cnstr); 
        printf("Version: %s\n", $mir.JOB_REV.cnstr);
        printf("Sublot: %s\n", $mir.SBLOT_ID.cnstr);
        printf("Operator: %s\n", $mir.OPER_NAM.cnstr);
        printf("Executive: %s\n", $mir.EXEC_TYP.cnstr);
        printf("Test Code: %s\n", $mir.TEST_COD.cnstr);
        printf("Test Temperature: %s\n", $mir.TST_TEMP.cnstr);
        printf("Package Type: %s\n", $mir.PKG_TYP.cnstr);
        printf("Facility ID: %s\n", $mir.FACIL_ID.cnstr);
        printf("Design Revision: %s\n", $mir.DSGN_REV.cnstr);
        printf("Flow ID: %s\n", $mir.FLOW_ID.cnstr);
        last;
      }
      default {}
    }
  }
  CATCH
  {
    when X::Parse::STDF { say $_.message; }
    default { say $_; }
  }
}

INSTALLATION

Since Parse::STDF uses libstdf, 'libstdf.so' must be in your library path (e.g. /usr/local/lib). To install libstdf on Ubuntu for example, use the following commands:

$ wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/freestdf/files/libstdf/libstdf-0.4.tar.bz2
$ bunzip2 libstdf-0.4.tar.bz2
$ tar -xvf libstdf-0.4.tar
$ cd libstdf-0.4
$ ./configure --disable-warn-untested
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ sudo ldconfig

Using zef (Rakudo module management tool) install:

$ zef install Parse::STDF

TESTED PLATFORMS

The following platforms have been tested:

RHEL Linux 6.x (x84_64)
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (x86_64)

EXAMPLES

Have a look at the examples. There are several scripts that demonstrate how to access the underlying objects and their attributes. In particular, dump_records_to_ascii.p6 does a fair job of visiting each Parse::STDF object class.

NativeCall

Parse::STDF uses NativeCall to interface with libstdf. Its easy to use, a natural fit and the next best thing since sliced cheese. No need for ::XS, SWIG (or other bridging software) to interface a C library with Perl. NativeCall makes installation of Parse::STDF simple and straightforward. There are only two things required to get Parse::STDF up and running. Thing one; install libstdf. Thing two; install Parse::STDF.

The appeal for using libstdf is in its representation of STDF records using C-structs. These structs are highly reusable and provide a solid foundation to quickly and easily build an application specific parser. For example, a parser to extract token/value pairs from DTR records to insert rows into a data base table.

NativeCall represents C-structs nicely as Perl6 class objects. This is accomplished by declaring a Perl6 class using the repr trait. See detail documenation here https://doc.perl6.org/language/nativecall. In addition to C-structs NativeCall also represents pointer types which is critical for navigating the various APIs and structs employed by libstdf. These powerful features (and others) make it possible to extend Perl seamlessly without having to write customized C code.

NativeCast

Navigating objects of libstdf requires a fair amount of C type casting. Following example was taken from libstdf/examples/dump_records_to_ascii.c:

case REC_DTR: {
  rec_dtr *dtr = (rec_dtr*)rec;
  print_str("TEXT_DAT", dtr->TEXT_DAT);
  break;
}

Here, rec is a pointer to C-struct called rec_unknown. It is later type casted as a rec_dtr type. To mimic this behavior in Perl6 NativeCall provides an API called nativecast which effectively performs the same task as a C type cast. The above can be written as the following in perl6:

nativecast(Pointer[rec_dtr], Pointer[rec]);

nativecast along with some other perl6 tricks made available by NaticeCall makes it possible to navigate libstdf objects just as if it were written in C.

AUTHOR

Erick F. Jordan ejordan@cpan.org