Ricreations, Inc. Awarded Key IEEE 1149.1 Patent Related to Its Universal Scan Boundary Scan Test Product.

GAINESVILLE, Ga. -- Ricreations, Inc., the technology leader in low-level manual scan-based, debug and test solutions, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark office has awarded the company a patent for its IEEE 1149.1 based test technology. The patent is a broad patent in the area of using boundary scan for low level real-time debug and test. The patent is U.S. Patent number 6988229 entitled "Method and apparatus for monitoring and controlling boundary scan enabled devices."

Providing Simple Real-Time Access to JTAG Devices

Traditional boundary scan tools that have been available for the past 10 to 15 years are focused primarily on the end of the design cycle: manufacturing test on boards that are preset in a known static state. These tools are extremely powerful and provide tremendous benefits to any manufacturing line implementing them. Unfortunately, these tools tend to be too powerful and cumbersome for the engineer at the other end of the design cycle - design and prototype development.

The new patent recognizes the innovation introduced by Ricreations Universal Scan that allows designers to use boundary scan to debug circuits running in real-time without the need for test vectors, test executives, CAD data or any of the other test development hurdles normally associated with traditional boundary scan test. This is ideal for prototype debug where there are lots of cuts and jumpers, the net-list is out of date, the CAD data is unstable and the designer just wants to check out a few signals quickly.

For the first time, designers can simply drop the parts on the screen, press SCAN and instantly 'see' what every pin on every device in the boundary scan chain is doing in real-time, while the circuit is running without any test development or setup. Users can also manually control each of the pins to do low level continuity testing, circuit checkout and memory programming.

"Because it is so simple and easy to use, this new technology has an added benefit" says Rick Folea, CTO at Ricreations, Inc. "It makes it easy to get designers into the habit of using JTAG at a very early stage of the design process and educates them about the benefits of using boundary scan in test and debug. This helps smooth the transition of the design from prototype to manufacturing and helps raise the awareness of the benefits of boundary scan during the design process."

Universal Scan doesn't replace Traditional boundary scan tools - it compliments them by providing a simple, easy and inexpensive way to get companies into using JTAG for test and debug. Once companies see the power of using boundary scan at the low level provided by Universal Scan, it becomes much easier for them to invest in the high end boundary scan manufacturing tools which ultimately leads to tremendous savings in production.

For more information, please see our website at www.UniversalScan.com.