Electronic – Boundary scan functionality of JTAG for onboard Flash programming

jtag

I would like to know whether we can use the Boundary Scan functionality of JTAG for programming an onboard Flash device without initializing the core CPU/processor (JTAG compliant Processor).

During the initial board bring up, we need to program the onboard empty flash using the JTAG interface.
But we don't want to use the processor core logic for programming flash, since after initial assembly we will not be sure if it is working correctly.

So, is it possible to program onboard (boot & Code) flash(NAND/NOR/SPI) using the JTAG interface on the processor, without initializing processor core logic?

Best Answer

Assuming the processor you are referring to has boundary-scan cells behind the pins that are connected to the Flash device you want to program, you should be able to program the Flash with JTAG/boundary scan without involvement of the processor's core. There are also some other JTAG based programming methodologies that can help to speed up the programming compared to boundary-scan based Flash programming (which is relatively slow).

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