- Deal fuelled by increasing number of JTAG devices appearing right across the product lifecycle from design through production and repair
- DiagnoSYS also signs distribution agreement to resell XJTAG to global customer base in Europe, North America and beyond
CAMBRIDGE AND PETERSFIELD, England, July 14, 2004 – DiagnoSYS (www.diagnosys.com), a world leader in electronics test, inspection and programming, has signed an agreement with XJTAG Limited, a specialist design and test tool developer and part of the Cambridge Technology Group, to enable it to integrate the XJTAG boundary scan development system into its PinPoint II advanced in-circuit tester.
PinPoint II is one of the fastest and most economical in-circuit testers available for service departments, repair centres, third party and fourth party maintainers. It is a powerful diagnostic tool for use on virtually any digital or hybrid circuit board and is used at hundreds of commercial and military sites worldwide for the diagnosis of faults down to component level.
The XJTAG Development System provides a unique solution that can test JTAG as well as non-JTAG devices including ball grid array (BGA) and chip scale devices, SDRAMs, Ethernet controllers, video interfaces, flash memories, FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays), microprocessors and many other devices. XJTAG also enables In-System Programming of FPGAs, CPLDs (Complex Programmable Logic Devices) and flash memories.
Commenting on the agreement with XJTAG, Andy Bonner, business development director, DiagnoSYS, said: “We are now seeing a rapidly increasing number of boards with JTAG devices appearing at all points in the product lifecycle and therefore needed to find a boundary scan partner. We looked at all the major players and opted for the XJTAG system as it had the functionality we required, was priced competitively and integrated well with our own solutions.
“In addition, XJTAG’s ability to offer In-System Programming of FPGAs and flash memories is a growing requirement from our customers, particularly those that want to program devices, such as mobile phones, during manufacture,” added Andy Bonner. “The XJTAG system is also an excellent reverse engineering tool and we expect it to be popular for fault diagnosis in the repair environment where, often, we are working without any system diagrams.”
DiagnoSYS has also signed a distribution agreement with XJTAG which will enable it to resell the complete XJTAG Development System via its global sales operation.
The XJTAG Development System provides a fully integrated environment, which can migrate seamlessly through the product life cycle from early design to field support and repair. XJTAG enables circuit designers to shorten the development cycle and prototyping process by facilitating early test development, early design validation of CAD netlists, fast generation of highly functional tests and test re-use across circuits that utilise the same devices. XJTAG test scripts are also re-usable and portable across different boards due to the novel device-centric approach that the designers have adopted.
Simon Payne, chief executive of XJTAG, said: “We are delighted that DiagnoSYS has selected XJTAG as its boundary scan partner. It has a large installed base of OEM customers across telecoms, industrial, military & aerospace markets and has an extensive sales operation which covers the USA, UK, France, Germany, Scandinavia and India. In addition, it works with many contract manufacturers who are often early adopters of innovative test solutions.”
For more information about the XJTAG Development System, please contact us. For more information about PinPoint II, please contact DiagnoSYS, Suite 19, Peartree Business Centre, Cobham Road, Ferndown, Dorset, BH21 7PT, UK. Telephone +44 (0) 1202 891481 or email info@diagnosys.com. Alternatively visit www.diagnosys.com.
About DiagnoSYS (www.diagnosys.com)
DiagnoSYS provides solutions to test, inspection and manufacturing problems through an extensive range of equipment and subcontract services. Established in 1991, DiagnoSYS has a broad knowledge of the electronics industry and with its worldwide sales and support network can provide practical, new technology solutions anywhere in the world. The company is headquartered at Petersfield in the UK and has operations in the USA, France, Germany, India, Sweden and a network of distributors worldwide.
About XJTAG (www.xjtag.com)
XJTAG Limited is a specialist design and test tool developer. Its JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) development system offers a competitive solution for designers and developers of electronic circuits. Utilising XJTAG allows circuit development and prototyping process to be shortened significantly by facilitating early test development, early design validation, fast development of functional tests and test re-use across circuits that utilise the same devices. The company is based in the U.K. at St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge.
About the Cambridge Technology Group (www.cambridgetechgroup.com)
Cambridge Technology Group is a holding company with three wholly-owned subsidiaries – Adiabatic Logic Limited, Cambridge Technology Consultants Limited and XJTAG Limited. Adiabatic Logic (www.adiabaticlogic.com) was set up to exploit a portfolio of secured patents in the low power technology arena. Adiabatic Logic’s patented Intelligent Output Driver (IOD), launched in May 2003, delivers significant (up to 75%) power savings in chip I/O for portable devices such as laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), MP3 players and smartphones.
Cambridge Technology Consultants (www.camtechconsultants.com) offers its clients – companies such as ARM, AT&T, BOC Edwards, Celoxica, Co-operative Group, Fujitsu, Marconi, Mitsubishi Electric and IPWireless – a broad range of services from high-end applications to innovative product development and technical consultancy skills. For ten years, its multi-disciplinary team of hardware and software engineers have provided cost-effective solutions from concept through to pre-production.
What is JTAG?
Advances in silicon design, such as increasing device density and, more recently, ball grid array (BGA) and chip scale packaging, have reduced the efficacy of traditional electronic circuit testing methods. In order to overcome these problems and others, some of the world’s leading silicon manufacturers combined to form the Joint Test Action Group (JTAG). The findings of this group were used as the basis for the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard 1149.1: Standard Test Access Port and Boundary Scan Architecture and subsequently the standard became known as JTAG.
