Responding to a key customer request for enhanced hardware capabilities, ASSET’s Remote Instrumentation Controller (RIC-4000) now supports connectivity with ASSET’s Pod II hardware controller, enabling multi-TAP boundary scan testing on Intel® designs.
The RIC-4000 controller provides an extremely flexible interface for communication between the ScanWorks® platform and a unit under test (UUT). Boundary-scan testing can be accomplished through one, or up to four, TAP/Debug port connectors.
By enhancing the RIC-4000’s ability to connect with the Pod II, customers can perform boundary-scan test on a UUT requiring Intel eXtended Debug Port (XDP) connection. Intel platforms with XDP connections are in use across a wide variety of industries such as telecommunications, personal computers, storage servers, and defense systems. Once the Pod II is plugged to the Intel platform, it has full control of the subset of XDP signals specified by Intel to support JTAG access through ScanWorks.
The Pod II connects to the TAP/Debug Port 1 interface of the RIC-4000 and, in turn, provides access to the XDP debug port interface signals. The XDP connector on the UUT may provide access to as many as two JTAG chains, including typically distinct chains for the Central Processing Unit (CPU) chain and the Platform Controller Hub (PCH) chain on Intel platforms. The remaining 3 TAP/Debug ports of the RIC-4000 can be connected to additional scan chains on the UUT for additional JTAG access.
The addition of the Pod II creates a total of 5 TAPs for use. All five TAPs can be accessed individually, or up to four TAPs can be concatenated and accessed as one scan path. “Creating the ability to run boundary-scan test concurrently through both conventional JTAG port and XDP connections was extremely important,” said Michael Johnson, ScanWorks Boundary Scan Test product manager. “This new controller combination satisfied a requirement for a key customer; the combination of these two controllers creates flexibility in our hardware offerings that will save our customers time and money.”
Host connectivity to this new hardware controller combination remains the same as using a single RIC-4000 controller. Through an Ethernet connection, the RIC-4000 with Pod II controller can be setup with an IP address to make it available on a corporate Intranet, Internet, or via a direct (peer-to-peer) network.
Pricing and Availability
The RIC-4000 with Pod II hardware controller is available for use with ScanWorks beginning with the ScanWorks 4.9 version. This version is available now from ASSET InterTech and its distributors. For pricing on a specific configuration of ScanWorks, consult an ASSET sales representative listed at https://www.asset-intertech.com/company/contact. For additional product information, call 888-694-6250 or e-mail ai-info@asset-intertech.com.
