How do you verify the hardware functionality of serial communication interfaces on a new board, such as UART, SPI, I2C, before the system’s functional software has been completed? The answer is: you can’t.
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How do you verify the hardware functionality of serial communication interfaces on a new board, such as UART, SPI, I2C, before the system’s functional software has been completed? The answer is: you can’t.
Boards and chips keep getting denser, faster. And the speed is higher so they’re a whole lot more sensitive. Slight variances or defects cause intermittent crashes and performance degradation. And the negative effects interact. Welcome to living “on the edge.”
Did you know that you can leverage the work you’ve already done developing boundary-scan board tests into system test? Why re-invent the wheels when you’ve already got them?
System clocks are fundamental for booting prototype boards or PCBs in production. Faulty clocks create havoc for any functional circuitry like processors, chipsets, ASICs and FPGAs. Even the operating system or the system’s firmware environment depend on them. Without them, you’re done.
A recent survey asked test engineers to identify their biggest circuit board test problems. Among the top three answers were characterizing and testing soldered-down memories!
In recent years, the sheer number of advanced digital networks on circuit boards has grown exponentially. These chip-to-chip interconnects, which are largely comprised of AC-coupled and/or differential networks, are much more difficult to test than the DC-coupled and single-ended nets they have replaced.
Cost goes up. Complexity goes up. Speed goes up. But time to debug boards goes down. Something’s gotta give, or at least change. The answer is taking advantage of the processor's JTAG debug port to enable an inside out approach to debug and test at-speed, not outside in at ‘low-speed’.
For the last 30 years or more, the electronics industry has mostly relied on a hands-on approach to test and measurement. Older board test technologies and external instrumentation include in-circuit test (ICT), manufacturing defect analysis (MDA), flying probe, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers and others.
Many electronic systems feature a wide range of system monitoring devices. The task is keeping track of certain conditions or operating parameters, like temperature while the system performs its function.Validating the functionality of I2C or SPI system monitors during prototype board bring-up is usually difficult and time consuming. The stakes are high because any delay can jeopardize the product introduction.
Learn what IEEE 1149.7 is all about, what its objectives are, how it works, its implications for debugging SoCs and 3D chips, and for testing circuit boards. Several illustrations show IEEE 1149.7 topologies. Scan-state sequences and flow charts clarify IEEE 1149.7’s terminology.
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