Thales
www.xjtag.com
www.xjtag.com
542
As with many of today’s network-
centric systems, the SDR uses the very
latest technology. For example, the
baseband boards in the MSN 8100-H
are densely populated and use fine
pitch high density connectors, as well
as large and expensive BGA/FPGA
devices, all of which make the boards
difficult to test by traditional methods.
To overcome these debug and
testing challenges, Thales has
adopted the XJTAG system for use
by development and production
engineers at its Crawley, West
Sussex (England) facility. The XJTAG
system is also being used by Thales’
contract manufacturing partner.
Initially, the XJTAG system will be
used to debug and test the baseband
PCBs that form part of the MSN
8100-H SDR.
“It made sense for us to use the
JTAG chain for debug and testing,
as more and more devices on our
boards were JTAG-enabled – and we
opted for the XJTAG system as it
was the best and most cost-effective
solution,” said Gary Delamare, Senior
Engineer, Thales. “The XJTAG system
is truly intuitive – it’s almost a plug
and play solution. We were up and
running within half a day using the
tutorial and development board, and
test coverage, for digital circuits, is up
around the 80 percent mark already.”
The XJTAG system is designed
to cut the cost and shorten the
development cycle of electronic
products and provides a unique
solution that can test JTAG as well
as non-JTAG devices. XJTAG can
test a high proportion of a circuit
including BGA and chip scale
devices, SDRAMs, Ethernet
controllers, video interfaces, flash
memories, FPGAs, microprocessors
and many other devices. XJTAG can
be used to debug and test any
circuit provided it has at least one
JTAG-compliant device present.
The ability to program Flash
memories and other non-JTAG
devices was an important factor for
Thales. By using XJEase (the XJTAG
system’s high-level test description
language for manipulating non-JTAG
devices), engineers had a rapid
means of programming Flash
memories both at the development
stage and through into production.
“Unlike other JTAG tools, XJEase
enables circuit developers to re-use
XJEase scripts in different projects,”
added Gary Delamare. “This portability
is really valuable and is not available
with traditional programming tools
which tend to be tied to one
particular processor.”
Thales UK's defense activities
encompass optronics, air defense,
sensors, communications and naval
systems. The company is the UK's
second largest defense contractor
and has been a supplier to the MoD
since the First World War. Thales
employs 10,000 staff in the UK and
60,000 people in 50 countries.
“
XJTAG is a fast, extremely versatile and cost-effective tool for
generating high test coverage on PCBs containing both JTAG and
non-JTAG devices. The XJTAG system has enabled us to cut the
development time for debugging and testing boards by around 20
percent and it has provided the basis for a common design for
test strategy, spanning development, first article build, production
and field service. We looked at other boundary scan solutions but
we opted for XJTAG due to its price and ease of use, and the fact
that test scripts are device rather than board-centric, which
makes them reusable on different projects.”
Thales’ MSN 8100-H software-defined radio (SDR) platform, the first
European operational software radio, has been designed as the
primary
component
of
a
comprehensive
high
frequency
communication network benefiting from the attributes of a versatile,
programmable and configurable multi-channel receiver/exciter. This
radio is designed for naval and ground based applications and will be
used on the Royal Navy’s next class of Destroyers, the Type 45,
scheduled to enter service in 2009.
Thales Selects XJTAG
® for Software Radio Testing
“
Thales needed a fast, extremely versatile and cost-effective boundary scan solution to debug and test complex
printed circuit boards (PCBs) used in its market-leading range of software defined radios (SDRs).”
opinion
Simon Holder
Hardware Design Manager
Thales
Company
Thales
Nature of
UK’s second largest defense
business
contractor
Main
Flight simulation, secure
product
transactions, integrated
communications, naval and air
defense systems
Customers
Military and industrial
Locations
60 sites across the UK
Employees
10,000 in the UK,
60,000 worldwide
Revenues
£1.1bn in 2004
Web site
www.thalesgroup.com