Thales UK Selects XJTAG System for Development of SDR Boards

CAMBRIDGE, England--Oct. 1, 20057, 2005--Thales UK (www.thalesgroup.co.uk) has selected XJTAG's boundary scan development system to debug and test complex printed circuit boards (PCBs) used in its market-leading range of software defined radios (SDRs).

Thales has adopted the XJTAG system for use by development and production engineers at its Crawley, West Sussex (England) facility. The XJTAG system is also being used by Thales' contract manufacturing partner.

Initially, the XJTAG system will be used to debug and test the baseband PCBs that form part of the Thales MSN 8100-H software defined radio (SDR), the first European operational software radio. This radio is designed for naval and ground based applications and will be used on the Royal Navy's next class of Destroyers, the Type 45, scheduled to enter service in 2009.

Simon Holder, hardware design manager at Thales UK's Crawley facility, said: "XJTAG is a fast, extremely versatile and cost-effective tool for generating high test coverage on PCBs containing both JTAG and non-JTAG devices. The XJTAG system has enabled us to cut the development time for debugging and testing boards by around 20 percent and it has provided the basis for a common design for test strategy, spanning development, first article build, production and field service."

"We looked at other boundary scan solutions but we opted for XJTAG due to its price and ease of use, and the fact that test scripts are device rather than board-centric, which makes them reusable on different projects," added Simon Holder. "The fact that XJTAG integrated seamlessly with other systems, in particular the LabVIEW graphical development environment, was also a major benefit."

Thales UK's defence activities encompass optronics, air defence, sensors, communications and naval systems. It is the UK's second largest defence contractor and employs 10,000 staff. The company's MSN 8100-H software-defined radio platform has been designed as the primary component of a comprehensive high frequency communication network benefiting from the attributes of a versatile, programmable and configurable multi-channel receiver/exciter.

"Our SDR platform, as with many of today's network-centric systems, uses the very latest technology. For example, the baseband boards in our MSN 8100-H are densely populated and use fine pitch high density connectors, as well as large and expensive BGA/FPGA devices, all of which make the boards difficult to test by traditional methods," said Gary Delamare, senior engineer, Thales UK. "It made sense for us to use the JTAG chain for debug and testing, as more and more devices on our boards were JTAG-enabled - and we opted for the XJTAG system as it was the best and most cost-effective solution."

The powerful and easy-to-use XJTAG Development System is designed to cut the cost and shorten the development cycle of electronic products and provides a unique solution that can test JTAG as well as non-JTAG devices. XJTAG can test a high proportion of a circuit including ball grid array (BGA) and chip scale devices, SDRAMs, Ethernet controllers, video interfaces, Flash memories, FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays), microprocessors and many other devices. XJTAG also enables In-System Programming of FPGAs, CPLDs (Complex Programmable Logic Devices) and Flash memories.

Simon Payne, chief executive at XJTAG, said: "We are delighted to have been selected by Thales, a global electronics giant, to provide our systems for debug and testing products for use in defence applications. There is huge potential for XJTAG across all markets and demand is growing as awareness increases among design and test engineers for the value of our unique solution, which unlocks the power of boundary scan."

An extended version of this news release - along with photos to accompany the story - are available at: http://www.xjtag.com/news_17-10-05.php.

For more information about the XJTAG Development System, please contact XJTAG Limited, The Irwin Centre, Scotland Road, Dry Drayton, Cambridge CB3 8AR, UK. Telephone +44 (0) 1954 213888, facsimile +44 (0) 1954 211565 or email info@xjtag.com. Alternatively visit www.xjtag.com.