Boundary-Scan Tutorial:

The Instruction Register

An Instruction register (Figure 21) has a shift scan section that can be connected between TDI and TDO, and a hold section that holds the current instruction. There may be some decoding logic beyond the hold section depending on the width of the register and the number of different instructions. The control signals to the Instruction register originate from the TAP controller and either cause a shift-in/shift-out through the Instruction register shift section, or cause the contents of the shift section to be passed across to the hold section (parallel Update operation). It is also possible to load (Capture) internal hard-wired values into the shift section of the Instruction register. The Instruction register must be at least two-bits long to allow coding of the four mandatory instructions — Extest, Bypass, Sample, Preload — but the maximum length of the Instruction register is not defined. In capture mode, the two least significant bits must capture a 01 pattern. (Note: by convention, the least-significant bit of any register connected between the device TDI and TDO pins, is always the bit closest to TDO.) The values captured into higher-order bits of the Instruction register are not defined in the Standard. One possible use of these higher-order bits is to capture an informal identification code if the optional 32-bit Identification register is not implemented. In practice, the only mandated bits for the Instruction register capture is the 01 pattern in the two least-significant bits. We will return to the value of capturing this pattern later in the tutorial.

The Standard Instructions

The IEEE 1149.1 Standard describes four mandatory instructions: Extest, Bypass, Sample, and Preload, and six optional instructions: Intest, Idcode, Usercode, Runbist, Clamp and HighZ. These ten instructions are known as the public instructions. We will look first at the mandatory instructions.

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