Diagnostic board

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In electronic systems a diagnostic board is a specialized printed circuit board used to diagnose problems in a system. A multi-board electronic system such as a computer comprises multiple printed circuit boards or cards connected via connectors. When a fault occurs in the system, it is sometimes possible to isolate or identify the fault by replacing one of the boards with a diagnostic board. A diagnostic board can range from extremely simple to extremely sophisticated.

Dummy board

A dummy board provides a minimal interface. This type of diagnostic board in intended to confirm that the interface is correctly implemented. For example, a PC motherboard manufacturer can test a PC motherboard by connecting a dummy PCI board into each PCI slot on the motherboard

Extender board

An extender board is a diagnostic board that can be interposed between two boards in a system. The extender board allows an engineer to connect diagnostic equipment such as an oscilloscope or logic analyzer to the system;. For example, the engineer can plug a PCI extender board into a PCI slot on a PC motherboard, and then connect a PCI card to the extender board. This approach was common in the 1970s and 1980s. The concept becomes unworkable when signal timing is affected by the length of the signal paths on the diagnostic board.

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