PISCATAWAY, NJ--(Marketwire - February 10, 2010) - Nexus 5001™ Forum, an industry consortium
supporting the IEEE-ISTO 5001™ (Nexus 5001™) standard for debug in
high-performance microcontrollers, processors, and system-on-chip devices,
announced today it has adopted the recently ratified IEEE Std 1149.7 as a
supported feature in its 2010 update to the Nexus 5001 Standard. Nexus
5001™ has supported IEEE Std 1149.1 (JTAG) since its initial
specification release; support for IEEE 1149.7, as a successor to JTAG,
will be included, along with other currently supported interfaces, in the
next version of the Nexus 5001™ Standard, planned for a 2010 release.
IEEE Std 1149.7 was adopted for the upcoming Nexus 5001™ specification
as it provides key functionalities that are complementary to extending
Nexus-based debug capabilities, while maintaining backwards compatibility
for current users.
"It is an important step forward that the 2010 IEEE-ISTO 5001™ Nexus
specification will incorporate new debug features and interfaces supported
by the IEEE 1149.7 specification," says Todd Collins, Nexus 5001™ Forum
Chairman. "By supporting 1149.7, Nexus 5001™ provides improved debug
features with a variety of interface options and modes, including higher
performance yet lower pin count debug ports that are needed in many areas
of the microcontroller/microprocessor market."
"We are excited to see the adoption of IEEE 1149.7 for Nexus 5001™,"
said David Kleidermacher, Chief Technology Officer at Green Hills
Software. "Green Hills has long supported the adoption of industry
standards for all aspects of embedded development. IEEE 1149.7 allows
Green Hills to provide new levels of visibility and run control to our
industry leading debug solutions, and backwards compatibility with our
current JTAG solutions based on IEEE 1149.1 means customers will have an
easy migration path to adopt this new technology. We look forward to
developing new capabilities based around this new standard."
The Nexus IEEE-ISTO 5001™ specification is an IEEE standard for
debugging interfaces of embedded systems and processors. It was developed
to provide extended debug capability, particularly when used for data
intensive analysis operations such as trace and calibration. Nexus 5001™
openly defines debug interfaces and protocols that are supported by a wide
variety of tool vendors across a range of processor cores.
For Nexus 5001 users, IEEE Std 1149.7 offers significant new capabilities,
including:
-- High performance, vendor-neutral port interfaces which can provide a
standards based gateway to integration with other standards based debug
and test capabilities (ex: IEEE Std 1149.1, IEEE Std 1500, IEEE P1587,
IEEE-ISTO 5001™ Nexus) required at both the chip and board level.
-- Backward compatibility with existing IEEE Std 1149.1 JTAG devices and
IP by emulation of JTAG interfaces, allowing support of existing JTAG
test systems, or use where more advanced features are not normally
required.
-- Reduced (2-wire) pin configurations with pin savings that provide
higher performance JTAG compatible test and debug functionality at a
lower pin cost.
-- Improved efficiency in multi-chip or multi-core environments via low
latency parallel data (4-wire or 2-wire star) interface topologies
compatible with current Nexus Auxiliary port based configurations,
and improved serial bypass delay capabilities in current JTAG based
Nexus interface configurations.
-- Standardized handling of debug logic power conditions via selectable
power mode controls to power down test and debug features for low power
devices
-- BDX (Background Data Transport) and CDX (custom data transport)
transfer modes for higher debug data transfer and channel performance.
About Nexus 5001 Forum
Nexus 5001™ Forum is a program of the IEEE Industry Standards and
Technology Organization (IEEE-ISTO) and was established in 1999 to support
the use and proliferation of the IEEE-ISTO 5001™ standard. Spanning the
semiconductor, development tools and automotive electronics industries,
Nexus 5001™ Forum membership comprise industry leading silicon
suppliers, tools developers, IP companies, and end users. Initially focused
on the stringent requirements of microprocessor debug tools for automotive
powertrain applications, Nexus 5001™ Forum has evolved its overall goal
to enable the standards based development of state-of-the-art, easy-to-use,
and high-performance IP, microcontroller, processor, and SoC
instrumentation and debug tools. Membership in the Nexus 5001™ Forum is
open to any interested party involved in instrumentation or debug related
work. Those interested in participating or wishing to download IEEE-ISTO
5001™ are encouraged to visit the Nexus Forum online at:
www.nexus5001.org.
Contact Information: Media Contacts
Stephen Lau
Product Manager for Emulation Technology
Texas Instruments
+1 281 274-3705
s-lau2@ti.com
Jeff Pane
Program Manager
Nexus 5001™ Forum
+1 732 465-6605
jeff.pane@ieee-isto.org