What does the phrase mean?

Question

1.2 Base board

• The base boards provides the following capabilities to the network module. The base board will be developed by AAA

  1) Feed all required DC power

  2) All signal input/output which defined in interface spec in the last page.

  3) Test pins for relevant signal input/output for the network module.

I just want to know the meaning of the last sentence(Test pins for relevant signal input/output for the network module). Does this sentence mean that You should test the pins of network module in order to check whether signal input/output works well? Is that right?

Answer 1

"Test pins" are convenient connections to specific parts of a circuit. They are not used in the normal operation of the device, and are used primarily for debugging or maintenance.

For example, imagine a simple, self-contained opamp-based amplifier, say built around a 741. There is no functional reason to bring the voltage supply lines out to external pins. However, if you're trying to debug it or function-check it, you might want to check that it's receiving power. Spare pins that connect to that voltage would be called "test pins."

This is describing a more elaborate system with more elaborate connections, but the principle is the same.

Answer 2

You might want to ask this on a more technical Stackexchange site. However, because of that word "capabilities" before the bulleted list, I think that here, test is a verb, and the bad writer is talking about the base board having the capability of testing the pins etc. Which I guess means: that the base board should be set up in a way that allows for easy testing of the pins. Or something like that.