USB JTAG emulator - a small portable emulator - 8 May 2002

Design Automation

USB JTAG emulator - a small portable emulator

8 May 2002 Design Automation

Blackhawk, a designer and marketer of DSP hardware and software development tools, has released its USB 2.0 JTAG Emulator. This emulator supports high speed USB 2.0 controllers (480 Mbps), as well as low voltage devices (1,0 to 5,0 V), and is tightly packaged in a pod the size of a credit card - only 89 x 51 x 15 mm.

Blackhawk's USB 2.0 JTAG Emulator is the interface between a graphical user interface (GUI) debugger running on a laptop or PC and the target DSP. The JTAG, scan path-based emulation (IEEE 1149.1) provides developers with non-intrusive target architecture.

Dick Friedel, President, EWA Technologies, the parent company of Blackhawk, says that with the system's portable compact design, easy installation, high compatibility, and target independence, it gives to developers the fast, flexible connection that they have desired. He adds that being target independent, developers are not required to update drivers when Texas Instruments releases new silicon, such as the C64x and C28x families, since the USB 2.0 Emulator already supports this line. The emulator is fully compatible with TI's TMS320 and TMS470 devices, as well as TI's Code Composer Studio Version 1.2/v2/2.1. The drivers supplied with the emulator support Windows 98/2000/XP.

Today's DSP development takes full advantage of current technologies, such as IDEs, optimising compilers for high-level languages, GUI, debuggers and JTAG emulators. A developer can take full advantage of all of these tools and leverage industry standard products like Code Composer Studio. By adding the plug-and-play simplicity of the Blackhawk USB 2.0 JTAG Emulator, today's developer now has a powerful, flexible tool for DSP development and support.

DSP development today takes full advantage of integrated development environments (IDE) by using optimising compilers for high-level languages, graphical user interfaces (GUI), debuggers, and JTAG emulators. The developer edits, compiles and links executable code using tools resident on a PC. Using a GUI debugger on a Windows-based PC, such as Code Composer Studio, the executable code is downloaded from the PC to the target DSP hardware via the USB-JTAG Emulator. The target DSP is then controlled by the debugger running on the host PC and communicates with the DSP target via the USB-JTAG Emulator. This allows normal debugging functionality. All of this is done without any code changes or additional embedded debug code. The only requirement for the target hardware is a 14-pin header that directly connects to the JTAG interface pins of the DSP chip.

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USB JTAG emulator - a small portable emulator

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