Connect - ASSET InterTech

The newest version of the ScanWorks JTAG system has increased openness to third-party technologies and products. The new features make ScanWorks the most open boundary-scan system among any of the proprietary JTAG systems available today.

“What’s most critical to every ScanWorks user is test coverage,” said Alan Sguigna, ASSET’s vice president of sales and marketing. “The more test coverage ScanWorks can provide them, the better they like it. By opening ScanWorks so that it will function with technologies from other companies and third-parties we are extending the test coverage provided by ScanWorks and making it a more valuable tool for our users.”

ScanWorks supports greater openness through several new features, including External I/O Management, which automates and includes a graphical interface for testing the structural integrity of signals that are routed off the circuit board-under-test through a connector. To extend JTAG test coverage to these external signals, they must be linked back into ScanWorks. This is accomplished with hardware I/O modules such as ASSET’s Boundary Scan 400 I/O module (BSIO-400), the AccessExtender™ family of modules from third-party JEK-Tech of Nashua, NH, or a module designed by the user.

External I/O Management simplifies the use of third-party I/O modules by providing an easy-to-use graphical interface to assign test resources to the signals on the circuit board that are being tested. Descriptions of the BSIO-400 and the Access Extender are included with the new version of ScanWorks and descriptions of user-defined modules can be easily created. A netlist of the external test resources is not needed, ensuring the test coverage reports include only the circuit board nets and pins.

ASSET’s BSIO-400 provides 400 JTAG test channels which can provide ScanWorks access to a circuit board’s off-board I/O. Each channel is controlled individually and can be configured as either an input or an output. The AccessExtender family of boundary-scan I/O modules provides 100 bi-directional test channels at various voltage levels.

“My past experiences managing a boundary-scan test applications service organization showed me that users need flexible and cost-effective hardware options which can easily extend boundary-scan test coverage while easing its implementation,” said Joe Kadaras, founder and manager of JEK-Tech. “The AccessExtender family is one of our first product lines. Another is a family of scan test cable adapters.”

Open to Lifecycle Analytics

Another new feature of ScanWorks opens the JTAG test system to the data mining probes of SigmaQuest, a supplier of automated test and quality data management systems. SigmaQuest’s systems gather information across multiple geographies, test technologies and the supply chain. By opening ScanWorks to SigmaQuest’s products, ScanWorks users are able to leverage consolidated business intelligence across their product design, manufacturing, supply chain and repair/return operations. ScanWorks test and fault coverage data can be consolidated across all phases of a product’s lifecycle, greatly assisting the analysis of failures and maximizing a product’s profit generation.

“We certainly appreciate the new ScanWorks features which enhance the openness that the system has had in the past,” said Owen Tucker, Vice President, Marketing, of SigmaQuest. “Not only does this benefit ScanWorks users who are able to incorporate our data mining and analytics into their operations, but it also helps our customers, many of whom are rapidly deploying boundary-scan technology. Our customers are integrating test and quality information into their monitoring and lifecycle analytics.”