Boundary-scan Controllers Address PCB and System Test
November 9, 2013. JTAG Technologies has announced its latest range of boundary-scan controller hardware for PCB assembly and system testing—the JT 5705 Series. This new design concept incorporates both JTAG/boundary-scan controller functions and mixed-signal I/O channels. Extensive input protection is provided to ensure high levels of in-service reliability and low maintenance. Connection to the tester is via a USB interface.
The first in the series—the JT 5705/USB—is supplied as desk-top instrument, primarily aimed at hardware-validation applications in design, small-scale production test, and field service and repair. The JT 5705/USB features two 15-MHz TAPs and 64 I/Os available through 0.1” IDC connectors. Fifty-six of the I/O channels are always digital, 16 of which also feature a frequency function. The remaining eight channels can be used as either digital I/O or analog I/O. The unit also contains a user programmable FPGA facilitating application specific digital I/O options. Via the built-in ‘Multi-Sync’ feature, several JT 5705/USBs can be combined into a single JTAG controller providing multiple TAPs and hundreds of I/Os.
The second model in this new range is the larger JT 5705/RMI, a 1U high 19” rack-mountable instrument for use in systems or as a bench-top tester. This unit features four 15-MHz TAPs and four groups of 64 mixed-signal I/O channels, providing a total of 256 I/Os available through 0.1” IDC connectors. As before, within each 64 channels group, 56 channels are permanently digital with 16 available as frequency inputs. The other eight channels of each group can be individually programmed as digital I/O or analog I/O channel. Furthermore, the JT 5705/RMI features a total of four user-programmable FPGAs for creating application specific digital I/O options.
The I/O capabilities as provided by the JT 5705/USB are also available in a separate I/O module, the JT 5112 Mixed-signal I/O scan module, or MIOS. The MIOS module can be used in combination with existing JTAG Technologies boundary-scan controllers such as JT 3705, JT 3710 and JT 37×7 adding analog I/O capabilities to those controllers.
Peter van den Eijnden, managing director, stated, “We received quite some market feedback on how the next generation of JTAG/boundary-scan testers should look, and increasingly we have been asked to provide analog stimulus and measurements alongside more traditional digital I/O systems. The new JT 5705s provides all this and more in really convenient and low-cost package.”
As the boundary-scan market expands beyond the traditional high-density digital targets seen in Mil/Aero and telecom applications, so the test equipment must evolve to match. As well as supporting multiple JTAG (IEEE 1149.x) compatible TAPs with programmable thresholds, the units have extensive mixed-signal I/O capability with a programmable measure and stimulus range of ±16V or 0-32V for the analog channels.
“The Automotive electronics sector is one area where we expect to see a high demand for this type of product. A great many ECUs require an analog/sensor stimulus which registers back to a microprocessor where the values can be checked using boundary-scan or JTAG emulative test methods, as supported by JTAG Technologies CoreCommander tools,” added van den Eijnden.
Use of the FPGA kernel allows users to develop their own digital I/O options such as CAN bus, counter/timer, or high-speed memory access. IP code from sharing sites such as Open Cores can be implemented in the FPGA fabric and accessed via JTAG Technologies’ own CoreCommander FPGA translator module.