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| Freescale supports ratification of the IEEE 1149.7™ industry standard |
New standard helps to reduce costs while improving embedded system test and debug operations AUSTIN, Texas – September 12, 2008 – Freescale Semiconductor, a provider of embedded semiconductors and a member of the IEEE® working group, has announced that it is actively supporting the ratification of the IEEE 1149.7™ standard, which is used to test and debug complex embedded systems. The new standard will be a complementary superset of the IEEE 1149.1™ standard (commonly referred to as JTAG for Joint Test Action Group, the group that defined the standard). The ratification is expected to reduce the number of pins in the IEEE 1149.1 technology from four to two enabling the simplification of testing operations and help to lower costs. In addition, the revised standard is engineered to provide power consumption control and support for advanced topology, multicore and multiprocessor systems. “Any integrated circuit using the IEEE 1149.1 interface may use this new standard (the IEEE 1149.7) to reduce the test interface pin count from four or more to two, while at the same time introducing more advanced capabilities,” said Rob Oshana from Freescale Semiconductor, chairman of the IEEE 1149.7 working group. “This standard takes the embedded industry to the next level of boundary scan debug and test support.” This IEEE 1149.7 standard primarily serves as a port into embedded systems for device manufacturing, testing and software development during system development. It is also used for application development and boundary-scan architecture for test access ports of embedded systems. Freescale is driving the ratification because the enhanced technology is complementary with Freescale’s leadership position in IEEE-ISTO 5001 (Nexus)—a best in class on-chip debug technology. "IEEE-ISTO 5001 (Nexus) has added reduced pin count support in two dimensions: high-speed serial capability for high performance processors and IEEE 1149.7 support for lower cost implementations”, said Rich Collins, the hardware technical chairman for Nexus. “Adopting the IEEE 1149.7 standard with its two pin interface provides this low cost transport capability while maintaining compatibility with legacy IEEE 1149.1 interfaces and IP." The new standard, scheduled for official ratification in Q1 2009, is scheduled to remain fully backward compatible—enabling systems with integrated cores from either standard to be amendable to the same test and debug procedures. Freescale is collaborating with IEEE group members Texas Instruments Incorporated, Intel Corp, ARM Ltd, NXP, Nokia, Lauterbach Datentechnik GmbH, IPExtreme, ASSET InterTech Inc, Corelis and GlobeTech Solutions to develop and uphold the imminent implementation of the IEEE 1149.7 standard. About Freescale Semiconductor Freescale Media Contacts: Emilie Salvagio Asia-Pacific Europe, Middle East and Africa India Japan Reader Inquiry Response Freescale and the Freescale logo are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. 2008. |