The application of boundary-scan technology to FPGA-based experiment system

Boundary-scan technology is a popular testing method. Applying boundary-scan technology to FPGA-based remote experiment system is brought forward and realized in the paper. “Configure” and “verify” are the two key steps in the process of FPGA-based experiment. Using boundary-scan technology as electric probe, we can realize both of the key steps. To improve the integral preference of the whole remote experiment system, we have designed a hardware boundary-scan controller with VHDL to configure and verify the target FPGA, and it works effectively. This scheme of adopting boundary-scan technology is simple, economical and stable, and has more advantages compared with other schemes. There are no precedents applying boundary-scan testing technology to the experiment system in education field, so the idea is original.

[1]  M. Glesner,et al.  Internet-based training of reconfigurable technologies , 1998, Proceedings. XI Brazilian Symposium on Integrated Circuit Design (Cat. No.98EX216).

[2]  P. Daponte,et al.  Geographically Distributed Teaching Laboratory for Microelectronic Design and Testing , 2000 .

[3]  Nobuhiko Koike,et al.  A New Remote Laboratory for Hardware Experiment with Shared Resources and Service Management , 2005, Third International Conference on Information Technology and Applications (ICITA'05).

[4]  M. Proske,et al.  Anytime, Everywhere - Approaches to Distance Labs in Embedded Systems Education , 2006, 2006 2nd International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies.

[5]  M. J. Smith,et al.  Chips on the Net , 2000 .

[6]  Zhao Hui,et al.  An innovative remote experiment system for FPGA-based curriculum , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Symposium on IT in Medicine and Education.

[7]  Rodham E. Tulloss,et al.  The Test Access Port and Boundary Scan Architecture , 1990 .

[8]  Patrice Kadionik,et al.  MEDICIS: a new tool for remote programmable FPGA circuit testing , 2000, Proceedings of the 17th IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference [Cat. No. 00CH37066].