XJTAG 2.3 Release Notes
New features and enhancements
Please see the Change Log for a list of new features and enhancements in XJTAG 2.3.
XJLink Driver
The XJLink driver is now signed and so a new version will be installed as part of the 2.3 installation. This will mean that existing XJLinks will need to be unplugged and plugged in again, and a driver reinstalled for them.
XJLink Manager
To support XJLink2, changes have been made to the XJLink Manager. The changes are compatible with previous versions of XJTAG, and XJLinks will continue to work with previous versions of XJTAG with the new XJLink Manager running.
However, since the new XJLink Manager is required for v2.3 XJTAG Applications to work with XJLink2s, if an older version of the XJLink Manager is found to be running when a v2.3 XJTAG application is started, then it is killed and the new XJLink Manager started in its place. A result of this is that if an pre-v2.3 XJTAG application is running and a v2.3 application is started, the older application may experience some interference with its XJLink, for example tests running in XJRunner may fail at that point. Once the XJLink Manager is running, the application should be able to continue as normal.
Unicode
XJEase code is now always handled as UTF8, which means strings containing non-ASCII characters are supported and printed correctly to the screen in XJRunner and XJDeveloper.
JTAG Chain Debugger
The JTAG Chain Debugger supports configuring the new pinmap used by XJLink2.
XJDeveloper
XJDeveloper is also capable of configuring the new XJLink2 pin mapping. As the XJLink2 supports up to four JTAG chains the JTAG Chain Screen has been redesigned to support this.
The format for storing which XJRunner tests are selected in an XJDeveloper project has changed between v2.2 and v2.3. XJDeveloper in v2.3 will read v2.2 projects correctly, however opening v2.3 projects in v2.2 will display a warning and will unselect the XJRunner tests.
There is a new BSDL File Editor to view and edit your BSDL and package files. Like the XJEase editor it has syntax highlighting and supports code folding.
XJRunner
XJRunner supports running tests on an XJLink2 by pressing the button on the unit. If you have several XJLinks you can run through a batch of boards continuously. When one board has finished being tested unplug it and plug a new one in and press the button on the unit (or screen) to start testing the new board whilst tests are still running on your other XJLinks.
XJRunner has a new Analysis feature which gives statistics about the percentage of boards that have failed as well as Fault Trend Analysis which highlights which tests are more prone to fail. There is also a log file viewer to show the complete current log file as well as allowing older log files to be viewed.
XJEase Language
The XJEase language now has two new keywords to support the new features of the XJLink2. PIN_FREQUENCY will return the frequency in Hz of an XJLink2 PIO pin, and PIN_VOLTAGE will return the voltage in mV.
XJLink2 Pinmaps
Pin 10 on the XJLink2 is a non configurable ground pin. Since this was not the case with the original XJLink, if your pinmap previously used pin 10 as something other than “low” or “input”, you will get a error when try to run XJEase code using an XJLink2.
Supported Platforms
XJTAG is supported under Windows 2000®, Windows
XP®, Windows Vista® (both 32 bit and 64 bit) and Windows 7® (both 32 bit and 64 bit). Please upgrade to one of these operating systems before attempting to install XJTAG, and then apply the latest Service Pack for your operating System. Service Packs are available from the Microsoft Support website.
Target Hardware
In order for XJTAG to interact with a circuit, the JTAG chain must be set up properly. To help with this, we have a produced a set of DFT guidelines. There is also a troubleshooting section in the help files.
Side-by-side installations
The facility to have multiple versions of XJTAG installed on a single PC was added in version 1.3.1. The earliest version of XJTAG that can be installed alongside version 1.3.1, or later, is version 1.2.
It is only possible to have one instance of each major release of XJTAG installed. It is possible, for example to install any variant of version 2.0.x.x along side any variant of version 2.1.x.x; however it is not possible to install two variants of version 2.0.x.x, 2.1.x.x, etc.
In order to allow users of the XJRunner COM interface to upgrade XJTAG without having to recompile their applications, the GUID for this component of XJTAG does not change with each major version of XJTAG.
Consequences: To use the XJIntegration COM object in side by side installations regsvr32 will need to be run when switching between versions in order to make sure the correct version of the other components of XJTAG are used during testing. The Version Checker utility (XJVersion) that comes with XJTAG allows the registered version of the XJIntegration to be switched between installed versions.
Changing Project File Associations
By default, double-clicking on an XJTAG project file of any kind will open it in the most recently installed version of XJTAG. The Version Check utility (XJVersion) can be used to control these file associations. It is recommended to do this using copy installed with the latest version of XJTAG that you have installed.
Previous versions
We welcome any suggestions for improving our products. Please contact us with any comments you may have and we will look into incorporating your ideas into a future version.