Tag: debugger

  • Diving into JTAG — Security (Part 6)

    by Aliaksandr Kavalchuk

    The JTAG interface is an important tool for debugging and testing embedded systems, providing low-level access to the internal workings of microcontrollers and other integrated circuits. However, this powerful interface also presents significant security threats. In the sixth and final part of this Diving into JTAG article series, we will focus on security issues related to JTAG and the Debug Port.

  • Diving into JTAG — Usage Scenarios (Part 5)

    by Aliaksandr Kavalchuk

    In previous articles, we have considered the primary uses of JTAG, including debugging and testing boards in production. For firmware developers, the first - debugging - is the most common. In this article, I want to look at two uses of JTAG Boundary Scan, which are also common tasks for a firmware developer: board bring-up and reverse engineering.

  • Diving into JTAG — BSDL (Part 4)

    by Aliaksandr Kavalchuk

    In the previous article of this series, we briefly touched on how .bsd files written in Boundary Scan Description Language (BSDL) describe the structure of the boundary scan chain and the instruction set. In this article, we will examine this language’s syntax more closely before seeing how .bsd files are leveraged in JTAG testing in the next article.

  • Diving into JTAG — Boundary Scan (Part 3)

    by Aliaksandr Kavalchuk

    In the third installment of this JTAG deep dive series, we will talk in-depth about JTAG Boundary-Scan, a method used to test interconnects on PCBs and internal IC sub-blocks. It is defined in the IEEE 1149.1 standard. I recommend reading Part 1 & Part 2 of the series to get a good background on debugging with JTAG before jumping into this one!

  • Diving into JTAG — Debugging (Part 2)

    by Aliaksandr Kavalchuk

    In this second part of a JTAG deep-dive series, we take an in-depth look at interacting with a microcontroller’s memory and engaging with the processor core and debug registers. While the use of JTAG in testing is fairly standardized when it comes to debugging, each processor architecture has its unique nuances. With that in mind, this article will focus on debugging using JTAG on the ARM Cortex-M architecture, specifically with the STM32F407VG microcontroller.

  • MCU Peripheral Forwarding

    by Evgeny Chormonov

    PC applications that interact with MCUs are used by developers for a number of reasons, such as data visualization, monitoring during testing campaigns, and command and control via a GUI. In this article, we’ll explore mapping an MCU’s peripherals to your personal computer to simplify development of PC applications built for embedded systems.