JTAGMaster Training Board

The JTAGMaster Training Board is a unique PCB designed to demonstrate the principles of JTAG testing and programming but also to show the capabilities of the JTAGMaster unit along with its associated software interface, AIMs.

The board offers the following :

- Four digital devices on one JTAG chain

- Four push button switches for the control of the board operation

- One 2 line x 16 dot character matrix LCD display for menu selection

- Four analogue input channels

- Two analogue output channels

- Eight digital Input/Output channels

The main goal of the JTAGMaster Training Board is to teach users how to program devices on a JTAG chain and how to carry out boundary scan tests to successfully check a board.

The operation of the JTAGMaster is controlled with a PC application called ABI Interface Manager, or AIMs. AIMs is a bespoke software package designed to facilitate the use of JTAG test equipment by introducing the concept of TestFlow.

Unlike other products available, the JTAGMaster does not require a program to test a particular device on a board. These test programs are very difficult and time-consuming to write. What's more, each program is specific to only one particular board and often cannot be run whilst the device is loaded with firmware.

The JTAGMaster Training Board shows how easy it is to write a test sequence, or TestFlow, in order to test a suspect board and determine which device, which pin or which pins are at fault. Whilst TestFlows are board specific, it is quite normal to write one in less than one hour for a given board - this compares with 2 to 3 weeks for a test program as stated above.

The JTAGMaster Training Board is very versatile and can be used for self training, demonstration to other users, training of newly acquired staff, checking of JTAGMaster operation or even as a practise board for new users. Even though a complete training TestFlow is provided as part of the package, new TestFlows can be created as a teaching exercise.

Another unique feature of the JTAGMaster is that the unit is not device dependent. Almost any type of IC which is JTAG enabled can be programmed or tested with boundary scan (more information on boundary scan available here). For this reason, several devices were placed on the JTAGMaster Training Board :

- ATMEGA16 MICRO: The ATMEGA16 is an example of a microcontroller which can be programmed and debugged using its JTAG interface. It also supports boundary scan to allow its pins to be monitored by the JTAGMaster.

- ALTERA EP1CF324 FPGA: The Atera EP1C4F324 is a general purpose FPGA which needs to be re-programmed each time the power is applied to the board. This can be done via configuration memory or the JTAGMaster.

- XCF10S Memory: The Xilinx XCF10S Platform FLASH contains 1Mbits of memory and can be used to program FPGA devices.

- XC95288XL CPLD: The Xilinx XC95288XL CPLD contains its own configuration memory and does not need to be re-programmed each time the power is turned on. However, it has a lower capacity than the Altera FPGA.

For a more complete understanding of the JTAG technique, some information has also been included in the training TestFlow: