PCI card interfaces put to the test

Test product simplifies testing of PCI card interfaces and at the same time significantly increases the overall test coverage.

The latest test product from JTAG Technologies is the JT 2702/PCI-Slot, which was specifically designed to simplify the testing of PCI card interfaces and at the same time significantly increasing the overall test coverage.

With the JT 2702/PCI-Slot product the earlier announced range of PCI I/O test products is further extended to a complete range of products to increase boundary-scan test coverage to the complete board assembly including the interconnections to the card edge connector pins.

Four JT 2702 models are now available to test 32 and 64bit PCI slots, 32 and 64bit PCI cards including the edge connector interface and custom interfaces using JTAG Technologies JT212x boundary-scan compliant DIMM modules plugged into the fixture boards themselves.

Up to 256 I/O channels are available from a single compact JT2702 with the possibility to cascade the units allowing a maximum of 1280 testing points.

All four JT 2702 products can be used in combination with JTAG Technologies high performance boundary-scan controllers.

The new JT 2702/PCI-Slot product provides a universal testing interface for short and long-form PCI cards.

It provides the necessary power supply voltages for the PCI bus and also supports the application of programmable I/O voltage levels (1.5 to 3.6V) to the PCI bus pins, plus the means to apply an external fixed voltage on any pin of the PCI connector (3.3V, 5V and a selectable voltage).

Moreover, the ground and power supply connections at the PCI interface can be tested separately for connectivity.

A total of 256 I/O channels are supported, 173 for the PCI connector and 83 for free wiring.

Besides external TAP connections the JT 2702/PCI-Slot allows also taking advantage of the JTAG interface built into the PCI bus to access the boundary-scan components of the PCI-based UUT and thereby greatly extends the total test coverage.

During testing, the PCI card edge connector simply plugs into the JT 2702/PCI-Slot test module mating connector, providing access to the programmable digital I/O pins of the JT 2702/PCI-Slot.

To improve overall boundary-scan test coverage, the JT 2702/PCI-Slot I/O pins are fully controlled through the serial boundary-scan bus and test patterns are applied to the JT 2702/PCI-Slot pins synchronously with those applied through the UUT.

The overall effect is a more thorough test that substantially increases the tested portion of the PCI card.

Engineers will benefit with greater design flexibility and a highly effective means of reaching their DFT goals by gaining boundary-scan access to points that would otherwise be unavailable for testing.

Each of the JT 2702 I/O products can be configured in separate boundary-scan chains or can be incorporated in any other chain already available in the design.

JTAG Technologies' highly automated test development packages support automatic generation of the test vectors for this application.

The use of the JT 2702 I/O products simplify boundary-scan testing of PCI boards and backplanes, while simultaneously increasing test coverage by including edge connectors and associated interface logic, significantly lowers test development cost and greatly enhances test coverage.

This effectively reduces time to market, lowers testing costs, and improves product quality.

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