News - Board and System Test

Boundary Scan tests generated faster

01 September 2010 - ASSET InterTech, a supplier of open tools for embedded instrumentation, has enhanced the boundary-scan test capabilities of its ScanWorks platform for embedded instruments by adding several powerful and automated test development and debugging features that accelerate the generation of boundary-scan tests.

The ScanWorks boundary-scan test toolkit, which is based on the IEEE 1149.x boundary-scan standard (JTAG), is one of several non-intrusive validation, test and debug technologies that run on the ScanWorks platform. Other ScanWorks toolkits employ built-in self-test (BIST) technology to validate high-speed serial input/output (HSIO) buses and processor-controlled test (PCT) technology to validate the functionality and test the structural integrity of circuit boards within a manufacturer's design and assembly operations.

"Diagnosing a scan path fault during integrity testing is usually easy, but when the scan path breaks during an interconnect test, things get complicated," said Kent Zetterberg, ASSET's product manager for boundary scan. "Now, ScanWorks automatically diagnoses these problems when they occur and points out immediately what driver on the board caused the problem. This saves tremendous time during test development and accelerates a product's time-to-market. Run and fail information is also provided immediately for fast and precise failure resolution during board bring-up and debug."

Another new ScanWorks boundary-scan feature speeds up test development by identifying for the test developer the non-boundary-scan devices connected to boundary-scan nets on a circuit board. Then the test engineer can import device models from ASSET's online library of over 11,000 models with just a few mouse clicks. Instead of the time-consuming task of manually editing text files of device models, the ready-to-use models from ASSET's online library can be integrated into tests instantaneously.

Other new enhancements include a simplified process for merging multiple netlists and a faster method for integrating ScanWorks into other software packages. The new netlist merging feature automates this aspect of test development and still allows the user to exclude netlists from ScanWorks' comprehensive fault coverage reports. And integrating ScanWorks into distinct test executives or other programs is now a simple selection option in the ScanWorks application programming interface (API).

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