Free JTAG software
Free JTAG software
Free JTAG software
Free JTAG finally meets FPGA based PCBs. A commercial quality free jtag tool is now available to FPGA users. Many readers may be familiar with the benefits of using FPGAs. Some readers may not be familiar with using JTAG to manage in-FPGA silicon instruments. Silicon instruments in FPGAs are small designs which interface to on-chip or off-chip functional resources such at voltage and temperature monitors, flash memory, digital to analog converters, analog to digital converters and amplifiers. The design is also interfaced to the FPGA JTAG TAP via user defined instructions and test data registers. This approach enables JTAG assisted functional test (or JAF for short) to excercise macro-sized partitions of the system. It provides a simple way to enable end users of the system to control and set paramters via free JTAG software and a FPGA vendor JTAG pod.
Intellitech has developed a demonstration to show this method using analog instruments and the upcoming new version of JTAG, P1149.1-2011. The demonstration uses Xilinx's Spartan-3AN Starter Kit (apparently designed by Digilent) which contains a Spartan-3AN FPGA with three external SPI-controlled analog components (DAC, amplifier, and ADC). The board was used to simulate a traditional integrated mixed-signal IC with ADCs, Amplifiers and DACs.
Each instrument controller in the FPGA design connects to a single Test Data Register (TDR) that is accessed via the user defined TAP instructions. Included with the demonstration are (1) the custom FPGA design with source code, (2) the Tcl scripts to test, read, and/or configure the instruments, and (3) the Tcl scripts to invoke the GUIs to control or read the instruments.
Users can access the three instruments via the Tcl scripts, spreadsheet views or the Tcl/Tk GUIs in the included component libraries. An example GUI for configuring the DAC is included in the free-step-by-step user guide in the links below. The user can slide the dials to the desired settings and the underlying Tcl scripts communicate with the on-chip IP to automatically update the DAC settings.
A simple example script in PDL the new language of IEEE 1149.1 (2011 version)is as follows. This sets a voltage on the LTC2624 DAC available on the PCB.
iScope s3an_demo.U1.SPI_MUX # set the scope to SPI instrument
iWrite SELECT DAC1 # set the DAC to talk on the SPI bus
iApply # send the data over the cable
iScope s3an_demo.U1.DAC1 # DAC instrument
iWrite command WRINREG_UPD # set the write-update command for the DAC
iWrite ADDRESS DAC_A # set DAC_A (not DAC_B)
iWrite DATA V_2P06V # set the DAC output to 2.06V
iApply # send the data over the cable
By wiring together two header pins on the Spartan 3AN starter kit PCB a DAC can have its output voltage set and the ADC can be used to read the voltage back. The demonstration uses the PDL scripts and the Tcl/Tk GUIs to show how to use JTAG/iJTAG to operate on the instruments without full functional operation of the system. The output of the DAC can be amplified under JTAG control and then measured at the ADC. A GUIs are provided which demonstrate how stand-alone plug and play instrument can be used.
Try the NEBULA software and training demo and you'll complete JTAG Assisted Functional test without physical access, a mission FPGA design, an operating system or CPU C/C++ code loaded in the target!
You can learn more about JTAG and the free JTAG software NEBULA at: Free JTAG
More details can be found in Intellitech's newsletter: Intellitech Links
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