Skip to main content

What is a JTAG Header?

What is a JTAG Header?

More often than not, the “JTAG connector” is a standard male header, such as a 0.1” header or a finer pitch header. As we have seen, there are only four (or five) pins required to operate a JTAG TAP.

What is a JTAG cable?

The JTAG-USB cable allows you to use your PC to connect to a JTAG scan chain or to access an SPI interface on a board equipped with the appropriate 6-pin header. In this way, you can program devices on Digilent programmable logic boards using the Digilent Adept Suite.

What are hardware debuggers?

Hardware support for debugging In-system programming allows an external hardware debugger to reprogram a system under test (for example, adding or removing instruction breakpoints). Many systems with such ISP support also have other hardware debug support.

What is TDI and TDO?

The connector pins are: TDI (Test Data In) TDO (Test Data Out)

How do JTAG work?

JTAG boundary scan technology provides access to many logic signals of a complex integrated circuit, including the device pins. The signals are represented in the boundary scan register (BSR) accessible via the TAP. This permits testing as well as controlling the states of the signals for testing and debugging.

How do JTAG debuggers work?

By providing a mechanism to control and monitor all the enabled signals on a device from a four-pin TAP, JTAG significantly reduces the physical access required to test a board. There are two main ways that this boundary scan capability can be used to test a board.

What is JTAG and why it is used?

JTAG (named after the Joint Test Action Group which codified it) is an industry standard for verifying designs and testing printed circuit boards after manufacture. JTAG implements standards for on-chip instrumentation in electronic design automation (EDA) as a complementary tool to digital simulation.

How many pins does a JTAG connector have?

If it is of 7 pins then why most JTAGs connectors come with 10 pin or 14 pin or 20 pin variants. Most of the pins are either NC or GND.

What is JTAG and how to use it?

This is a serial bus with four signals: Test Clock (TCK), Test Mode Select (TMS), Test Data Input (TDI), and Test Data Output (TDO). The bus is used as a test bus for the ‘Boundary-Scan’ of ICs, as in Design-For-Testability ( DFT ). To use JTAG, during the design, you most select JTAG compatible devices.

What is the best way to connect JTAG to a motherboard?

One of popular existing options was Everex (10-pin IDC connector, formerly used for connecting DB-9 serial ports to the PC motherboard). 14- and 20-pin IDC connectors are popular options as well, but JTAG isn’t limited to these.

What is the JTAG test bus?

The bus is used as a test bus for the ‘Boundary-Scan’ of ICs, as in Design-For-Testability ( DFT ). To use JTAG, during the design, you most select JTAG compatible devices. ICs supporting JTAG will have the four additional pins listed above.