JTAG receives Best in Test award

Each year, the editors of Test & Measurement World present their prestigious Best in Test® awards to products they believe to be particularly innovative or useful. This year, the editors narrowed the field from scores of deserving products that were introduced between November 1, 2005, and October 31, 2006. Among their selections for 2007 Best in Test was JTAG Technologies for its JTAG TapCommunicator™. TapCommunicator leverages the power of boundary-scan for long-distance, high-fidelity transmission of test vectors and device programming data by means of existing communication links. Traditionally, boundary-scan applications have had to run in close proximity to the target or unit-under-test (UUT). Even while supporting widespread corporate test topologies, it has been necessary to co-locate the boundary-scan controller and the target PCBs or sub-systems. Various techniques such as manipulation of test clock (TCK) phase / frequency or repeaters have been used to overcome the distance limitation, but these approaches have often introduced compromises such as reduced clock speed and are only useful within a limited, local range.