IEEE P1149.4 Mixed-Signal Test Bus Working Group
Meeting Minutes

for

May 20, 1996

Generously sponsored by Hewlett-Packard


Access the Minutes of the February, 1996 Working Group Meeting.


Meeting Agenda

Time Topic Responsibility
8:00am Continental Breakfast - Thank you Hewlett-Packard
8:00am Arrival and Introductions Adam Cron
8:15am Approval of February, 1996 Minutes Adam Cron
8:30am Switch Definition Meeting Results Steve Sunter
10:00am Break - Thank you Hewlett-Packard
10:30am Draft D06 Review Brian Wilkins
12:00pm Lunch - Thank you Hewlett-Packard
1:00pm Draft D06 Review (cont.) Brian Wilkins
1:30pm New Test Chip Design Effort Ren Franse
Katsuhiro Hirayamu
2:00pm Register Length Adam Cron
2:30pm New Instruction Steve Sunter
3:00pm Break - Thank you Hewlett-Packard
3:15pm IC Test Progress Keith Lofstrom
4:00pm Demo Software Progress CJ Clark
4:30pm Variable Vref, 4 vs. 3 Latches Steve Sunter
5:15pm Ballot Status Adam Cron
5:45pm Next Meeting at ITC Adam Cron
5:55pm New Membership Adam Cron
6:00pm Adjourn Adam Cron


Working Group Statistics

Working Group Members 36
Total Subscribers 328
Total Subscribers on "esd" reflector 244
Countries Participating ~31
Companies Participating ~181
Funds Available $2258.84


Meeting Attendees

Name Company Sponsor
CJ Clark Intellitech
Bill Coombe Medtronic
Adam Cron Motorola
Dan Dandapani University of Colorado
Ted Eaton Intellitech
Ren Franse Panasonic Semiconductor
Katsuhiro Hirayama Panasonic Semiconductor
Terry Junge Seagate International
Keith Lofstrom KLIC
John McDermid Hewlett-Packard
Elbert Nhan Johns Hopkins University
Kozo Nuriya Matsushita
Ken Parker Hewlett-Packard
Steve Sunter LogicVision
Tony Suto GenRad
Brian Wilkins Southampton University


Sending Regrets

Name Company Sponsor
Allen Heiden Motorola
Madhuri Jarwala AT&T Bell Laboratories
Michel Parot Thomson-CSF
Mani Soma University of Washington
Lee Whetsel Texas Instruments


Arrival and Introductions

Adam Cron asked if anyone had downloaded the Draft D06 and if anyone had any trouble with it. Nobody seemed to have had any problems. Adam mentioned an article on the rules for generating a standard draft published in last month's IEEE Standards Bearer. He announced that C.J. Clark, Ted Eaton, and Akira Matsuzawa will be eligible to vote in the WG after this meeting. Adam and the WG thanked Ken Parker for Hewlett-Packard's sponsorship of this meeting. Adam said because of change in responsibilities, Madhuri Jarwala could not make this meeting (and probably future meetings). Lee Whetsel could not attend this meeting due to an impending birth in his family. Adam said he released the February WG minutes a little bit early without Bob Russell's viewgraphs, but Bob's proposal was voted down anyway in the last meeting. Steve Sunter asked how many people there are in the WG and whether we needed more people for the ballot? Adam said no. The current WG membership stands at 37. Adam pointed out some people received yellow ballot forms from the IEEE. Steve commended the February minutes.

Approval of October, 1995 Minutes

Adam motioned to approve the 02/96 meeting minutes. Seconded. Unanimous approval.

Switch Definition Meeting Results

Background: One of the action items resulting from the last meeting at Seagate was that the switch issue needed to be examined in great detail since a switch is not just a simple on-off switch. We have core disconnect, impedances, etc. to consider. A subgroup consisting of Ken Parker, John McDermid, Keith Lofstrom, Mani Soma, and Steve Sunter was formed for this purpose. The results from the subgroup study are as follows:

Refer to viewgraph VG1.

Item 1: Impedance is defined as the impedance that can be measured between two pins (trans-impedance only). Rpin-to-pin (from any analog bus pin to any function pin) was determined to be less than or equal to 50*Rout, or less than or equal to 10 kOhms if Rout is greater than or equal to 200 Ohms. A switch impedance is limited to 5 kOhms.

Item 2: There is a need for a very stable current. Voltage references must also be stable over the duration of a measurement. If one were to measure a 10-Ohm resistor with a 1 mA current, a reference with at least 100 uV accuracy is required. John McDermid drew on a viewgraph: A current source delivers a small current (1 mA) to a 10-Ohm resistor. A voltage reading of 10 mV is measured with a voltmeter across the resistor. In this instance, the voltage across the resistor must be stable to within 1 uV during the measurement time interval. Keith Lofstrom asked: What about heating effects? Depends on the length of the measurement time. In terms of bandwidth, we should measure a voltage between 1 and 100 kHz (the voltage need only be stable within in this frequency range. We need a Vmin, a Vmax, and a limit on the magnitude of the current (1 mA is a good number). Steve asked what limits we should specify (i.e., how do we know if a switch is big enough?). He said the impedance limit will be a rule, and the voltage limit can be a rule also (in response to Brian Wilkins' question whether items 1 and 2 on viewgraph VG1 should be made a rule). Steve said both impedance and voltage limits (items 1 and 2) will be rules except for the "1 mA load" and the bandwidth. He pointed out that we need to give designers some numbers to work with and should not leave the parameters wide open. Adam asked Tony Suto if this was reasonable. Tony replied that it sounds reasonable without off-chip capacitance. The 0.001% Vdd must be between the time the first switch and the second switch are closed for measurement by the voltmeter (See VG7). Brian asked what Rout means. Rout means the output impedance of the buffer, and the switch impedance would have to be 25*Rout on viewgraph VG7. For core disconnect: the only thing we care about it is the off impedance. Ken said we need to limit the scope of the "switch" rules to the basic switches, not including core disconnect. The point here is to minimize the size of the impedance of switches necessary to implement P1149.4. It was agreed to delete "+/-1mA load" from item 2.

Item 3: The subgroup members agreed that the switches should be able to tolerate a short circuit indefinitely between VDD and VSS. Steve mentioned we haven't put a limit on VDD and VG switches. He said if we mandated that all pins should be able to tolerate short circuit indefinitely that the market place would accept it. Adam disagreed (Keith said we could assume the mission drivers have current limits). Steve said the switches we are talking about here are parametric measurement switches (i.e., switches associated with parametric measurements). Steve said there is no mention about the short circuit capability of function measurement switches (function and parametric measurements involve different switches). Steve drew on viewgraph VG7 that G and Vmin are just VL and +V and Vmax are VH for function measurement. The G and +V switches are used when in AMODE. In the switch subgroup meeting, only parametric measurement was discussed, but not AMODE.

Item 4: Turn off a switch in the presence of a short circuit (the statement was modified by adding the words "able to" to the beginning and "under scan control" to the end; see viewgraph VG1). A discussion ensued concerning whether default values should be added to BSDL and whether defaults should be in the specifications. Keith liked the idea of specifying defaults to centralize designers' tendency. Ken, on the other hand, would like the Standard to be technology-dependent. Keith maintained that defaults give designers a starting point. Since it was apparent that the issue of defaults cannot be easily resolved in the WG meeting, the discussion was relegated to E-mail. Ken added that there is a problem with defining arbitrary numbers (an example is a differential amplifier with a 50-ohm resistor at the output).

Viewgraph VG2.

Item 1: G, +V must be known prior to measurement to within 10% for use of "safe" voltages on capacitors.

Item 2: On viewgraph VG8, Steve drew two chips interconnected via a capacitor and a resistor. A 0 V is forced on the chip on the left but the voltage on the chip on the right should not be kept below VSS (a diode drop). We can put a guideline on the voltage swing to be +/-100 mV to avoid the undesired situation.

Item 3: Add some settling time for entering and leaving CD mode for discharge of voltages and currents on reactive components.

Item 4: This is where AT1 and AB1 switches become useful. The switches can be turned off to reduce the size of the leakage currents. If leakage currents are too high, we may not be able to characterize them. In other words, we cannot have chips that are "too sloppy." This is merely a guideline to cancel leakage current effects but is actually open to user creativity.

Item 5: Viewgraph VG9 shows a voltage delivered to a function pin. For this scenario, we need a known voltage at the pin. The user must characterize these parameters, not the manufacturer. What matters is at the board level. These are all guidelines aimed at the user. Adam pointed out that item 5 on viewgraph VG1 pertains to the manufacturer. It was agreed to replace "characterize" with "measure" to be more specific.

Steve proposed to vote on the "switch rules." Brian expected to release two versions of the draft between now and ITC. Terry Junge asked about G and +V stability. It is readily apparent that 0.001% of VDD is required for G but is it necessary for +V? Steve said two stable references are necessary for 3-terminal device measurements (i.e., a transistor). Perhaps only one stable reference (G) is needed. A stable +V can be made optional for certain types of measurements. Keith pointed out that resistance of a switch is modulated by a changing power supply level. Steve said we are measuring right at the pin and that shouldn't affect the measurement. Load stability was debated. Further discussion resulted in specifying some loading condition for Item 2 in viewgraph VG1. The phrase "under load condition" was added to the specification "0.001% VDD." See viewgraph VG1.

SUMMARY: The discussion results from the switch subgroup were presented. The subgroup was formed to establish some guidelines and specifications on switches used in the test bus. The results will also aid Brian in drafting the Standard.

Draft D06 Review

Conformance: Brian proposed a set of conformance requirements.

1. Must conform to 1149.1, indicating P1149.4 is "riding the coattail of 1149.1" and adopting 1149.1 simple interconnect.

2. TAP must consist of 2 analog bus lines.

3. Every analog pin must have an ABM.

4. 1149.1 currently defines all differential pins as analog. But the new version of 1149.1 has a revision in the section that describes how 1149.1 treats analog pins. Also, 1149.1 forbids anything on differential pins.

Brian presented a case in which two chips interconnected with a capacitor and a resistor as shown in viewgraph VG10. Brian agreed with Steve's suggestion that a chip can have a 95% compliance and doesn't have to be 100% compliant. Steve suggested calculating the number or the percentage of pins that are fully P1149.4 compliant. He argued that if a chip must be either compliant or non-compliant, then no chip can be 100% compliant, and no one will buy this. Brian found it hard to say a chip is P1149.4 compliant but doesn't do P1149.4. Adam said we have so far voted into the Standard that a chip can be P1149.4 compliant with exceptions. What about the digital pins? Adam said power pins are considered analog. Steve said power pins don't count. With no end in sight, the conformance issue was tabled for now.

There were some comments about figures in the draft. Steve suggested going over the draft page-by-page. Adam showed a collection of corrections captured from recent e-mails.

Steve said that on p. 5 of the draft in the third sentence of the first paragraph, the verb doesn't agree with the subject. There was a brief debate on this, and it was decided that this be taken off-line.

In Section 1.3 on p.7 entitled "the requirements for conformance," Steve wanted all 5 points that were approved in the last meeting to be included. Brian suggested we ask 1149.1 to make a recommendation. Ken would like to see BSDL recognize different versions of 1149.1. He said Adam should make a recommendation to 1149.1. In Section 1.3, Ken said maybe we should provide a statement pertaining to the documentation of BSDL so that the user can use it. Adam wondered if we needed Section 1.3 at all? He said there are a lot of forward references. Steve said that to claim conformance, all digital pins need to do a set of specific functions, and all analog pins need to perform some other functions. In summary, the end of the document seems to be a logical place for Section 1.3. Adam reminded the WG that Adam Ley said 1149.1 is device-specific, but P1149.4 is pin-specific. Brian was concerned about conformance to the different versions of 1149.1. This subject will be revisited later.

Clause 3: Steve said for Section 3.7, for a digital pin, replace "a set of discrete values" with "two discrete values." Adam mentioned there was an E-mail message concerning this change.

Definition 3.5: Ken asked if the IEEE has a better definition for the term "differential." Steve said the sum of digital single-ended measurements (low bandwidth) is not equivalent to differential measurement using a differential amplifier (high bandwidth).

Definition 3.6: Need to be consistent with the terminology: Module vs. Cell. Steve said perhaps a sentence like "a module consists of one or more cells" can be added to the definition.

Definition 3.2: Tony said there is an exception to what was said. There are analog circuits (e.g., a pulse-width boost circuit) that can have a voltage beyond the device rails. Tony said we could add the word "typical" between "any" and "value." Brian said we are just trying to distinguish between "discrete" and "continuous."

Terry Junge wanted power pin monitoring to be included in notes 4. Ken said the user can take the ad hoc approach for this and that this doesn't belong in clause 3 (Definitions).

Notes (1): Steve said digital has two discrete values and everything else is analog, period. So, Notes (1) was deleted.

Definition 3.17: Steve said we should add "A stable" in the beginning of the statement. The reference needs to be stable but not necessarily be known.

Definition 3.8: Ken was not satisfied with the definition. An example: A 16-pin DIP package contains 8 discrete resistor; is that a discrete or just 8 individual discrete resistors housed in the same package. There was a brief discussion on this but the issue was tabled.

Definition 3.20: Ken suggested changing the definition of a switch to a "conceptual switch." Brian said perhaps that Definition should be moved to elsewhere in the draft that deals with the conceptual switch.

Definition 3.24: VH and VL are not reference levels, per se. Rather, they are a "more positive level", and a "more negative level", respectively.

Diagram on page 4: Change "cell" to "module", and "+V" and "G" to "VH," and "VL," respectively.

Section 4.2, Permission C: Ken thought it should just mention 2, 3, or 4 busses can be added but any more is considered ad-hoc. Ken didn't like Permission C being so open-ended. If we left it like this, we need to define a mechanism to implement it. That is, we should specify what needs to be done if additional analog bus lines are added and if any interaction among the busses is possible. Ken's point is that Permission C is too "wide open." This implies we still have lots of work to do to fully nail this down. What Permission C suggests is that new pins may be added to the ETAP. Steve commented that if extra pins are desired at the ETAP, it's important to make sure the additional pins follow the same rules as AT1 and AT2, except the new pins only involve a negative reference for differential measurements. More discussions and debates followed. The issue was finally tabled for E-mail discussion. Ken added that if this permission is not properly defined, the software will not work which would introduce lots of support issues.

It was mentioned that there were a lot of references to non-existing clauses. Being just a draft, this is understandable. There were suggestions to position clause 7 before Section 4.3, clause 5, and Section 6.2., mainly to eliminate excessive forward referencing to main terms that are not yet defined before they are referenced. Steve asked if the draft is written in the top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top fashion. Brian advocated the idea that we should postpone details until as late as possible to avoid bogging down the reader.

Page 14, clause 4.3: Ken said we should be saying an observe-only cell between digital and analog cannot be used. Further discussion led to the deletion of the first note on page 15.

Clause 5: Test bus interface between ATn and ABn should be added to this clause. Rule (b) should read: "There shall be at least two internal analog test bus lines (AB1 and AB2) and a single test bus interface circuit." Second square under clause 5, page 15: Insert "integrated" between "the" and "circuit."

Permission (i), page 15: ABIST doesn't exist. Delete this permission. Rule (d) (iv): Brian asked what is meant by characterizing AT2. Steve said characterizing means we want to make sure AT2 does what it 's supposed to. Rule (d) (iii), page 16: Should say something to the effect that it involves AT1 and AT2 and nothing else. Rule (d) (iv): Change G and +V to VH and VL. Adam asked do we not want G and +V? Perhaps if we want to know what the maximum voltage the pin can handle, then we would want Vmin and Vmax. In effect, AT2 is like a 1149.1 pin. However, 1149.1 mandates that VH and VL are pin-specific. The consensus is that for d (iv), just use VL and VH instead of G and +V. Rule (j): Delete "mandatory." Rule (e): Ken asked how much current and what happens if the external source can't supply the current? If a current is injected into AT1, and a measurement is read at AT2 to check the integrity of the bus, what does that imply about the current capability of the switches. Ken said the whole concept of ATn-to-ABn has to be thought out carefully. It's time to re-visit this topic first raised a couple of years ago -- connecting 2 busses together when one is a current and the other is a voltage. Current buffers in high-speed applications are common now. Issues like voltage compliance and current-to-voltage conversion should be examined. Ken brought up a scenario where a current buffer cannot supply the current it is asked to deliver. In this situation, the user should be informed. As it became evident that this topic would take up a significant amount of the meeting's time, it was agreed to take this off-line. A subgroup was formed consisting of Tony Suto, Ken Parker, Steve Sunter, and John McDermid. The results from the subgroup will clarify Figure 6, which will also be a topic of discussion for the subgroup. Adam said the subgroup will additionally take on the entire section 5. Tony suggested the subgroup also work on the definition of a switch (a classic switch is one with low on resistance and high off resistance, but that now current mirrors, etc., are being mentioned, the definition should be modified).

Page 19: A safe bit can be used only at the boundary scan register that controls access to analog bus, but not in any internal register. Brian thought one can put it anywhere. Perhaps we should not specify how things are handled. Brian questioned the idea of specifying whether one bit is needed for a function, and another is needed for another function and so on. Adam said it's already been decided the register bits must be in the boundary. Steve said the document is implying if we have an internal register chain and a boundary register chain, then both can control the test registers. As a result of the discussion, the second NOTE on page 19 was modified as "... give access to boundary registers ..." The issue is really BSDL. If we made sure the bits are all in the boundary, the software would then be able to control them. The software will detect mistakes. Brian still didn't see why these bits have to be in the boundary. When the bits are in the boundary, we would be able to put the safe bit in the software. Steve said if we can declare a safe bit for the internal registers, then it should be no problem. However, Ken said the problem is still there. Maybe the safe bit is not an issue at all. The controversy seemed to involve the internal analog and the boundary busses. Since this issue could not be satisfactorily addressed in the meeting, it was tabled for E-mail discussion.

Section 6.2.1, second paragraph: This whole paragraph was taken from 1149.1. Adam said if we had defined what a DBM is, then we would not need this paragraph. When Brian lifted this paragraph from 1149.1, he changed "cell" to "module." A module can contain multiple cells in P1149.4 with "cell" being defined as in 1149.1.

Figure 10: Brian said this is just an example and we should define rules for this. Another topic relegated to E-mail discussion. Ken is concerned about the ordering of the cells with regard to BSDL. BSDL can handle any order, as long as the cells are named.

Instructions, page 28: What should P1149.4 say about 1149.1 instructions? (e.g., what happens to an ABM during a "bypass" instruction?) This question was addressed later in the meeting.

INTEST: There are a couple of options. 1. There is no such thing as INTEST. 2. Yes, there's one but it's AINTEST which is different from the 1149.1 INTEST. The paradigm starts breaking down. Brian wanted the same "INTEST", i.e., 1149.1 INTEST, but run it with all the analog pins disconnected or in a quiescent state. We need to rule it in. Ken still insisted on a different name for analog INTEST. Adam officially closed the draft discussion and asked everyone to read the draft and provide comments.

SUMMARY: Brian Wilkins led the discussion of changes and modifications stemming from various WG members' comments on Draft D06. Emphasis was placed more on the technical content rather than typos or grammar. Terms were clarified and some wording was altered accordingly to aid the reader's comprehension. A number of issues were deferred to E-mail discussion when it became apparent that there was no consensus among the WG members on a resolution.

New Test Chip Design Effort

Ren introduced himself. He is serving as a liaison between Matsushita Electric Industrial (MEI) in Japan and the WG. MEI will produce a test chip and would like to introduce it to the WG (refer to viewgraphs VG11 and VG12). There are some legal issues involved, but MEI is currently working on those. Ken asked if there are any concerns regarding competitor companies using the technology MEI was presenting to the WG. Ren replied that as long as a competitor company doesn't take the technology which is proprietary information and develop marketable products with it, it's acceptable to use what's presented on the condition that a non-disclosure agreement is signed.

MEI is already using 1149.1 for some applications and the applications have been published in different trade journals internationally. MEI is thinking about implementing P1149.4 in its consumer electronics products. It has been MEI's goal to try to insert P1149.4 into practical applications. There's a cost-effective and happy medium between the cost of design vs. testability. What's the tradeoff between design time/cost and testability? There is a major commitment from the MEI management to the 1149.1/P1149.4 standard, with the possibility of MCMs and boundary scan being worked into appliance electronics. Brian asked if Ren had done any cost-benefit analysis. Ren said MEI has done a crude analysis of time saving on a camcorder but to date has not done an in-depth analysis of saving in monetary terms per se.

Katsuhiro Hirayamu's (MEI) presentation:

Viewgraph VG13: A 1149.1 fully compatible test chip has already been fabricated. However, measuring analog components is not possible with just 1149.1. P1149.4 can be used to solve that problem. The main objective of this test chip is to evaluate the effectiveness of the analog test bus structure and its various switches.

Viewgraph VG14: Provides a summary of the features of the 0.35-um CMOS test chip housed in an 84-pin QFP (0.65mm pitch): 1) 5-pin 1149.1 compatible TAP controller. 2) Two analog test bus ports (AT1 & AT2). 3) Four sets of digital boundary scan input/output ports. 4) Fifteen sets of analog boundary scan ports. 5) Two control ports for analog switch impedance in each analog boundary module. 6) One reference for compactor threshold.

Viewgraph VG15: Internal structure of the test chip. The core circuitry is the back-to-back inverters. Steve asked if this has already been fabricated. Katsuhiro said the chip is currently in fabrication.

Viewgraph VG16: Shows the 5-pin test controller structure.

Viewgraph VG17: Logic schematic of ABM. The RMODE port comes after the decoder (4-wire bus). VREF may be adjusted at the comparator.

Viewgraph VG18: Example of TEST board image. The test chip mounted on a test board can be inserted into an application board for test.

Viewgraph VG19: Shows the pin assignment of the test chip in an 84-pin quad flat-pack.

Viewgraph VG20: Switch impedance is adjustable in the range of 100 Ohms to 6.4 kOhms. The switch impedances are adjusted by varying the voltages.

Adam asked when we'll get the test chip. Katsuhiro said by ITC. A letter was given to the Working Group detailing Matsushita's intentions:

Requirements for P1149.4 Test chip and documentation: It is the intention of Matsushita to contribute to the efforts of the boundary scan project by supplying tools and documentation to aid in P1149.4 development. For that purpose, Matsushita will make available to the WG a test chip and documentation. To receive this package, Matsushita must receive instructions from export control on the Japan side and non-disclosure agreement (NDA) on the US side. It is envisioned that these activities will occur concurrently, and to that effect, Ren will draft an appropriate NDA, and upon receiving a letter of intent on the requesters' respective corporate letterheads, to Ren's attention, will make available to the requesters of this development package. Requests should be sent to:

Mr. Ren Franse
Panasonic MTDC
1 Pana Way, M/S 1E4
Secaucus, NJ 07094

SUMMARY: Matsushita has developed a test chip that is compatible with 1149.1 and that incorporates analog test busses with switches for aid in P1149.4 development. Interested individuals may submit their requests to the above address.

Register Length

Refer to viewgraph VG21. Only the functional requirements of the ABM should be ruled. Brian said we'll only show examples but not actual implementations. Steve said a minimum of 3 bits is required. Brian responded by saying we agreed on defining the functions only but not the number of bits. Adam said the issue is for BSDL in terms of supplying the software with enough information for test. Ken added that we would want to use the same 1149.1 software and build P1149.4 software on top of it which has always been his intention. The 10/20/95 E-mail on a 3-cell design is an example of the potential to use 1149.1 software for P1149.4. Ken said anything can be done but questioned whether we want to do extra, unnecessary work. It should be noted that if people wanted to add extra bits, then additional work needs be done for the software. CJ Clark suggested deferring this discussion until the topic is discussed later in the meeting. His opinion is that he has no problem with the multiple bits and didn't see the 3-or-4 bits as a big issue. But Ken said we need to nail down the number of bits and along with it make a table (need a solid definition of what they do). 1149.1 has lot of different cell designs. Ken advocated the preservation of the 1149.1 paradigm, which took 5-6 years to develop. In his 10/20/95 E-mail message, Ken said using this 3-bit cell design, he can implement 1149.1 software which would perform simple interconnect tests without modifications. CJ said a scheme with 3 or 4 bits is fine. Why restrict hardware people when they can ask software people to make changes. Steve asked if a chip is 1149.1 compliant, can we say the 1149.1 BSDL can be run on it? Ken said we ought to be able to.

Keith proposed a motion: The number of bits will be 2 for simple interconnect test (data and control) and one or more other bits will have safe values defined for 1149.1 mode (simple interconnect). Discussion followed. Ken suggested orthogonal digital and analog bits. Ken wanted to avoid the 1149.1 predicament in which various flavors of 1149.1 cell design prompted the need to write a lot of software for them. Ken said the fundamental point is do we want the digital and analog to be orthogonal? Brian referred to Table 2 in the draft. We were talking about analog pins. If orthogonal, we can use digital for analog pins for simple interconnect test and use analog for analog pins. The goal of this discussion was whether we want to nail down the number of bits for BSDL's sake. Nobody has come up with another alternative. The point is Lee would like to see distinct orthogonality whereas in the draft it's not so. With no resolution imminent, it was decided to defer the issue to E-mail where Lee will also be involved.

New Instruction

A proposal was brought up concerning the "APROBE" instruction. In the last WG meeting, Ken's E-mail on this subject was discussed. There are two versions of Ken's E-mail and Steve disagreed with the contents in both. Steve's recommendations: (refer to viewgraph VG3), SampleA is the generic name for APROBE. AMODE is the instruction for selecting a clean VH, VL, and crude +V and G. The difference between SampleA and ExtestA is that the latter has core disconnect whereas SampleA doesn't. But both do allow analog busses connected under control of register bits. Steve said ExtestA must have very stable voltages. It's an easy sell because it comes free with the existing bits. Keith said the number of bits is not a big issue but the number of pins is. Ken asked if VH and +V have the same function; why need 2 distinct instructions. In 1149.1, Sample and Extest are the same but here we're "divorcing" the two. Ken said these two instructions can be merged. He said the G switch must be able to conduct the current injected. We can merge the two instructions if it's just voltages we're talking about here. We have to explain to the user when the two instructions can be legally merged to save bits. Steve then proposed that the contents of viewgraph VG3 be motioned in. We're adding two new instructions to what we have already had. Ken said there are 2 flavors to Extest: strong drive vs. weak drive. We're preserving what we have and just adding new instructions. Additional decoding is needed at the pin if VH and VL are different from +V and G. The drive strength and stability of Vmin and Vmax voltages are of concern here.

MOTION: Contents of viewgraph VG3. Seconded. Yea: 7. Nay: 0. Abstention: 0. Unanimous approval.

IC Test Progress

Test chip updates. Keith hadn't seen the February minutes. These test results were as of 5/16/96.

Viewgraph VG22: The design is usable, IMP has about 300 parts. Craig Danes of Guidant will test and characterize the devices. Steve Dollens put together an "Adventure Kit." Intellitech will supply the demo software. KLIC will produce "hack it yourself" software.

Viewgraph VG23: Two papers have been accepted for ITC. Demo paper: need help characterizing part. Early Capture paper: building a more impressive experiment. Laptop-based demo available. Could use better test equipment.

Viewgraph VG24: What is working on the chip: Four isolated boundary cells. Many internal tests. TAP and analog interfaces. Two differential amplifiers, one with boundary cell and one unloaded. Early capture extension.

Viewgraph VG25: There were some problems. Boundary cell 4 meets specs but is "weird." Other 4 cells are fine. Status/control register has flaw but we can work around it (will change mask on the second layer for the chips). Swapped state codes in differential cell. All defects have software work-arounds; chip is fully usable as is. Adam asked CJ if he understood the controller flaw and knew what to do with it. CJ replied that he will figure it out.

Viewgraph VG26: A 4x8 board includes 2 demo chips in zif sockets, one 74CBT244 boundary scan octal, 36-pin Centronix-style connector, lots of jumpers, and 2x3 perfboard for experiments. Any feature desired to be added on test board, let Keith know and he'll take care of it.

Viewgraph VG27: PC-based software. Intellitech will produce a canned demo that will highlight the Standard and its capabilities. KLIC will make available "the source code of user-fiendish software suitable for hacking together user experiments." Keith needed to know who will do it on PCs and who will do it on a tester. CJ asked if Keith's board is flexible enough to change the connector pinouts. Since CJ already has the software, if the pin-out is compatible, one can just plug Keith's board in their system and test it.

Viewgraph VG28: Availability. Steve Dollens will work out a purchasing mechanism at IMP. The boards will be at cost, "a few hundred" dollars. How many more chips and boards should we make? For the chip, Keith provided a floppy disk that contains the document for posting on the SPA system.

Viewgraph VG29: KLIC action items. More characterization data are needed. Build high-speed Early Capture interface. Finish demo software and ITC papers. Whoever helps Keith to characterize needs to give data to him before the ITC paper deadline. This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase P1149.4.

Viewgraph VG30: Help wanted. Issues already discussed last meeting. HP offered their Portland facility where a network analyzer is available for Keith to use. He needed to define what the user needs to do to get what he wants. Adam said CJ's tasks are different from what Keith wants to do. This issue will be discussed later.

Viewgraph VG31: Even more help wanted. ESD testing and ATMS option need study. Keith wanted to limit the number of instructions to be demonstrated and will take this up with Ken and Steve.

Steve Sunter had prepared a list of tests and those responsible for testing the demo device.

Demo Software Progress

CJ reported that the demo software is about two months behind everybody else. It will be a windows-driven interactive program complete with pull-down menus, dialog boxes, etc. CJ showed a viewgraph of a partially completed top-level menu and associated windows. The components U1 and U2 on a test board will be based on Ken's BSDL. A second viewgraph showed the underlying layers and menus in U1. A limited number of instructions will be built into the software for each of the U1, U2, and U3 devices. CJ will insert a table found in the draft in a menu that is user-selectable. The user will have the flexibility of enabling and disabling different combinations of switches (all 11 choices will be available). But at the moment, the software was lagging the hardware. CJ commented that the software will be flexible enough to adapt to any chip. Bill Coombe offered to provide hardware from Craig Danes to CJ so CJ could wire it up and test his software. It was pointed out that Keith's own test board is different from Dollens' board circuit design. Adam suggested putting company logos in the beginning of the software as "payback" (advertisement) to CJ and other participating companies for the software work done for the WG. Steve asked if anyone has measured a resistor. Bill said no. They had just gotten started last week. Bill also asked for a list of people who will help out with testing the test chip.

Variable Vref, 4 vs. 3 Latches

Variable Vref: Steve Sunter replaced the topic "Additional Test Scenarios," which was already a "done deal," with "Variable Vref" (viewgraph VG5) and "4-vs-3 latches" (viewgraph VG6). The variable Vref was motioned and approved by the WG in February, 1995. It is useful for extended interconnect. For some ICs, Vref must be pin-selectable (non-overlapping ranges). We've mandated it must be dc and be available to AB1 & AB2. Does it have to be internally generated? The fourth and fifth bullets on the viewgraph are reasons for the variable Vref. Keith said we can use a comparator to get around the problem of selecting variable Vref. This possibility changes things significantly. Steve said he has to think about this a little more.

Four latches in less area & clock cycles than 3? The new scheme will take less area than the old one. Fewer scan bits are required and more control is possible. This proposal is probably too late to be incorporated into the Standard. But Steve was just trying to bring to the WG's attention. This is not a new idea since 1149.1 also considered it.

Ballot Status

Ted Eaton requested to be on the ballot. Adam will add his name to the ballot list. The ballot request has gone out -- 45 days for reply. Balloters are requested to read the draft and put comments on the reflector. Ken said the figures and drawings are important and are intended to be just examples of implementation but are not rules. CJ asked for a time frame for the draft. June, 1996 was the original plan for the ballot. But it was optimistic. Steve said we can edit, proofread, and tweak the draft all we want but it needs to go out for comments and insights that we may not already have. Adam put the number of ballot people at 75 in addition to however many other names the IEEE may add to it. An estimate of the number of balloters is 200.

Keith wanted to discuss the variable Vref on the E-mail. Steve tried to solicit comments from the WG, saying we're going for the final draft here.

Next Meeting

Keith will have his ITC paper reviewed by the WG. Keith asked if anybody wanted a copy of his current draft of paper. Ken and Steve said they do.

The next meeting will be held at ITC in Washington D.C.

New Membership

Since at this time the WG was ahead of the schedule, there was suggestion of going over the draft again. But the topic of discussion shifted to voting rules in the WG. Steve objected to the relaxation of the rule for becoming a WG member with voting privileges and argued his case. Steve said we have set the requirements to avoid being in a situation in which people with superficial knowledge were allowed to vote, resulting in longer and less productive meetings. Steve added that the technical materials take a long time to digest. Other WG members felt that an exception to the rule should be made for Matsushita. Matsushita has obviously demonstrated more than a superficial knowledge by building a P1149.4 demo device. They also sent representatives to the last meeting.
MOTION: It is proposed to suspend the existing rule to vote in the WG to allow Matsushita Electric Industrial, Limited, (Panasonic) to participate in the voting process without fulfilling the requirement of attendance. Seconded. Yea: 7. No: 0. Abstention: 1. Motion carried.

Adjourn

Seconded. Unanimous approval. Meeting officially adjourned.


Access the Minutes of the October, 1996 Working Group Meeting.


To reach the Chair of the IEEE P1149.4 Working Group:

Adam Cron
Motorola
50 East Commerce Drive, Suite M5
Schaumburg, Illinois 60173
USA
Phone: (847)576-3092
Fax: (847)538-4801
E-mail: adam_cron@wes.mot.com