In-System Emulation Technology VarioTAP® Powers Energy Micro® EFM32 Gecko MCU with Serial Wire Debug (SWD) from ARM®


GOEPEL electronic, leading vendor of JTAG/Boundary Scan solutions compliant to IEEE1149.x announces the extension of the innovative emulation technology VarioTAP® for the support of the ARM's Serial Wire Debug (SWD) interfaces. VarioTAP's functional range includes on-chip programming up to emulation tests at system level, and is based on processor specific library models in the form of software IP. The new VarioTAP models' first implementation covers the ultra low energy MCU of Energy Micro's EFM32 Gecko series with Cortex-M3 core.

"Perspectively, we expect a wider spread of low pin count test and debug interfaces. The now available VarioTAP® support of ARM's Serial Wire Debug accesses is not only another strategically important 2-wire interface but increases our solutions' future reliability", says Thomas Wenzel, Managing Director of GOEPEL electronic's JTAG Boundary Scan Division. "Combining Energy Micro's innovative MCU with our unique VarioTAP® technology, users are able to validate, test and program in particular power-saving products for applications such as Smart Metering, Medical Devices, Security and additional energy intensive markets even faster."

"We are very pleased to see the advanced technology from GOEPEL electronic being available for our EFM32 microcontroller series", says Øyvind Janbu, CTO at Energy Micro. "The VarioTAP® models allow a seamless production flow that will reduce our customers' production cost and time to market."

Users of the new VarioTAP® models for the EFM32 Gecko series are now able to initially execute the functional emulation test for all board components and subsequently program embedded Flash. This procedure takes only few seconds. It is executed in a consistent run, provides extremely high fault coverage and requires only one hardware platform.

The Boundary Scan signals or SWD signals are consistently controlled by the recently introduced SCANFLEX® hardware TIC020 with programmable multi-bus interface for JTAG and non JTAG architectures.

The adaptive streaming technology of the TAP signals allows emulation tests to be executed in parallel or interactively with Boundary Scan tests within a test program, whereby the number of Taps' is unlimited. A multitude of possible configurations including multi processor and Gang applications are supported.

The use of VarioTAP® does not require expert background knowledge, additional development tools or processor-specific pods, which makes the handling easy and uncomplicated.

Due to the OEM cooperation with all the leading vendors of In-Circuit Testers (ICT), Manufacturing Defect Analysers (MDA), Flying Probe Testers (FPT) and Functionality Testers (FT), the new solution is available for production with immediate effect.

The new VarioTAP® IP models are supported as standard starting from SYSTEM CASCON(TM) version 4.5.3, and are activated by the licence manager like the system software. SYSTEM CASCON(TM) is a professional JTAG/Boundary Scan development environment, developed by GOEPEL electronic with currently 45 completely integrated ISP, test, and debug tools. Regarding the hardware, VarioTAP® is completely supported by the controllers of the SCANBOOSTER(TM) family, as well as by the hardware platform SCANFLEX®.

About GOEPEL electronic:
GOEPEL electronic is a worldwide leading vendor of professional JTAG/Boundary Scan solutions and technology innovator of IP based instrumentation. With more than 100 product launches the company became the biggest innovator in the market within the last five years. A network of branch offices, distributors and service partners ensures the global availability of the products as well as the support of the more than 7,000 system installations. Founded 1991 and headquartered in Jena, Germany, GOEPEL electronic employs currently about 160 employees and generated a revenue of 17.9 Million Euro in 2009. GOEPEL electronic has continuously been ISO9001 certified since 1996 and has been honoured with TOP-JOB and TOP-100 awards for being one of the best medium-sized companies in Germany. GOEPEL electronic's products won several awards in recent years and are used by the leading companies in telecommunication, automotive, space and avionics, industrial controls, medical technology, and other industries. Further information about the company and its products can be found on the internet at www.goepel.com.

Press Contact:
GOEPEL electronic GmbH
Stefan Meissner
Goeschwitzer Str. 58-60/66
D-07745 Jena
Tel: +49-3641-6896-739
Fax: +49-3641-6896-944
Email: press@goepel.com
URL: www.goepel.com

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