Our 20-year-old solution is sailing off into the sunset

ASSET is sorry to have to report that we have declared End-Of-Life for our online, web-based BSDL Validation Service.

Our solution, built in collaboration with Agilent Technologies (now Keysight), was a true innovation when it launched back in 2005. It provided a no-charge, user-friendly utility for chip DFT engineers to validate syntax and semantics of their Boundary Scan Description Language (BSDL) files. Used in conjunction with improving EDA tools for boundary scan insertion, it provided an additional level of confidence in compliance with the IEEE 1149.1 standard. In addition, patterns could be generated by the tool, to be used on ATE for those able to go the extra mile in their testing.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. The Agilent and ASSET software needed to run the tool is showing its age, and can no longer be supported. There have been several outages that have been increasingly difficult to remediate. Restoring the utility after these outages has become impossible.

It is with a heavy heart that we are shutting down the service, effective immediately. We know that it has been of great service to the industry. Although we have no plans to deliver a successor, there are other tools out on the web that provide a similar capability. And EDA boundary scan insertion tools have been much improved over the last 20 years.

It has been a good run. Thank you all for your support and patronage over the last two decades.