JTAG Circuit Board Bring-Up Tools, JTAG hardware Debuggers.

Circuit Board and Hardware Bring-Up and Debug Using JTAG
We have many years experience providing and supporting JTAG hardware bring up and debug tools (as well as JTAG FLASH Programmers) that help engineers to bring up, debug and test new and production hardware (PCBSs) for PowerPC, MIPS, XScale and ARM processors and others, as well as non-processor based systems.

Debugging new printed circuit board hardware requires a JTAG test tool that lets you get down to the lowest level hardware detail so you an see exactly what is happening. You need valuable features like: easy target configuration and display, memory tests (walking 1's, read/write scope loops) and a powerful JTAG test GUI to get the job done right.

If you like to operate from a command line for hardware bring-up, you can choose to use our XJLINK (USB JTAG Test Probe) from a command line interface and get started debugging your new hardware right away. To allow you to debug tests that you create a command line debugger is provided.

If you prefer a GUI interface for hardware bring up Test and debug, you can use our XJANALYSER and XJRUNNER products.

Applying Power to Your New Board

After applying power to you board for the first time, there are several things that you want to verify:

Do you have power to the processor and JTAG?
XJLINK can automatically verify that power is available on the JTAG connector and issue and error if it is not.

Can you Communicate Over JTAG to The Processor?
This is a crucial first step to debugging your new hardware. Once you have a working JTAG connection, your can use the XJLINK JTAG hardware to begin debugging and testing your board.

As long as you have good power, a valid clock and a good JTAG connection, you should be able to plug into your new system and the tool will report back the status of your system. If you have trouble with JTAG communications, we provide tests that lets you verify proper communications a verify key signals.

Can you See Your FLASH Device From the JTAG?
Many Systems come up pointing to some type of FLASH memory. You can use XJLINK to determine if you FLASH device is accessible by the processor. Use a FLASH ID command to place a FLASH device in "CFI" mode and the tool can be programmed to report back the FLASH device type and specifics such as the number of sectors and it's size. Depending on your target configuration, you may need to use to set a few target registers to enable chip selects and/or memory translation before you can see your FLASH device.

Testing Memory and Peripherals
Now that the basics ar working, you will want to get RAM and other on-chip devices tested as well.

Memory Device/System Configuration and Test
Embedded Toolsmiths provides memory and board configuration files for most popular off-the-shelf devices.

These files can be used as a starting point to initialize your new hardware. Simply start with a file that supports the device that you are using (or the closest match), then make any changes that you may need.

You can XJANALYSER to test memory to see if it is working. If you need to, you can run continuous memory tests or scope loops so that you can use a scope to verify that valid chip selects and bus cycles are coming from the processor. You can also use scripts and our GUI to change values.

Now that RAM and FLASH are working, you can continue to set up turnkey tests that can be used by you or other members of you team to verify the proper operation of other devices on your board.
For additional information about using our tools to bring up your new/custom hardware please contact us or follow the links on this page.