I remember the GPT

Test equipment for semiconductors was EXPENSIVE ( we were shocked at the idea of a MILLION dollar tester from LTX, Teradyne or Megatest) so people tried all sorts of workarounds; software on a PC controlling a rack full of benchtest equipment using HPIB or RS-232, multiple dedicated test stations (one for analog, one for digital, one for or RF) or custom standalone test boards using an on-board processor, etc.

The approach at Mitel was to take the chassis from an SX-200 PBX and to retarget it as a test system by developing custom cards for the power supplies, switch matrix, system controller etc. The hardware was the responsability of Russ Fields and the software was done by Brad Snoulten (sp?). It was a very cost effective system, programmed in a language called SEMTEL, but it had a personality.

Every few months when the new coop students came in Claude Auclair, head of test department operations would plunk down a box of 1 Ohm, 1 Watt resistors. These were the limit resistors for the 1 Ampere range on the power supplies and new programmers routinely blew them up. You could judge the quality of the new programmers by the smell in the test area.

One night, test engineer Gerry Ebata and I were sitting over a GPT working on a production problem. Gerry got really frustrated and, in his patented fashion (he destroyed many a keyboard 'Return' key), bashed down on the keys to spell out F*** YOU on the tester command line... the machine came back with 'Same to you fella'. We were completeley paralyzed with laughter for minutes, it turned out that Brad Snoulten had programmed SEMTEL to respond to the word F***. We spent quite a long time testing other phrases to see if we could find more 'Easter eggs'.