Low-Cost UNIX- and PC-Based Boundary-Scan Upgrade for Agilent 3070 In-Circuit Testers

JTAG Technologies, the world-leading provider of boundary-scan test tools for electronics designers and manufacturers, announces the availability of Symphony 3070, a complete hardware and software boundary-scan upgrade package for the Agilent 307x family of in-circuit testers. With this low-cost upgrade, users of Agilent UNIX- or PC-based 3070 systems will be able to execute at their existing ICT high-speed flash programming and high quality tests prepared with the JTAG Technologies development tools. As with other JTAG Technologies software products, users will benefit from interchangeability, i.e. the ability to transport freely their test and programming applications across PC and UNIX software application development and execution environments. Symphony 3070 can be ordered immediately from JTAG Technologies. Pricing for a complete upgrade package for a UNIX-based 307x test system is less than $23,000 and for a PC-based 307x test system less than $20,000.

Symphony 3070 delivers a superior combination of ICT and boundary-scan techniques, drawing on the benefits of each while emphasizing excellent cost-effectiveness. Fixture complexity is greatly reduced as boundary-scan provides the test access for most digital portions of the Unit Under Test. Furthermore, Symphony 3070 is built on a modular and flexible system architecture, giving users their choice to use either a UNIX- or PC-based operating system. Therefore, Symphony 3070 allows application development and production testing/programming to take place under different operating systems for optimal utilization and flexibility in using capital-intensive (computer) resources.

As a result, with Symphony 3070, existing ICT users who desire to retain their UNIX environments need not convert to Windows. For example, a development organization may generate complete boundary-scan applications on Windows-based workstations, and run the applications seamlessly at a UNIX-based Agilent 307x production system. This freedom eliminates disruption to the production platform, avoids the need for retraining of operating personnel, and assures that UNIX durability is retained.

Symphony 3070 is a powerful solution to the problem facing many designers and manufacturers of high-density printed circuit boards: how to regain electrical access to assemblies that are becoming so complex that physical test-point access is very limited, and in some cases impossible. Despite incurred dramatically more expensive test fixtures, ICT users have endured decreasing test coverage, thereby allowing more board faults to escape from structural testing to functional testing. For an increasing number of applications, the answer to this problem has become boundary-scan, the technology based on IEEE Std. 1149.1 that provides high accessibility to the PCB for testing without the need for physical contact to a large number of test points.

About JTAG Technologies

JTAG Technologies, with its US main office in Stevensville MD and corporate headquarters in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the global leader in innovative boundary-scan (IEEE Standard 1149.1) products. The company delivers a broad line of software and hardware tools for test preparation, test execution, test result analysis, and in-system programming applications. With an installed base of more than 3,000 systems world wide, JTAG Technologies serves a wide variety of electronics manufacturers in industries such as communications, medical electronics, avionics, defense, and automotive.