The Boundary-scan Chain has the capability of driving and observing the logic levels on the digital I/O pins, as well as the boundary between digital and analog logic for analog circuitry having off-chip connections. At system level, all ICs having JTAG capabilities are connected serially by the TDI/TDO signals to form a long Shift Register. An external controller sets up the devices to drive values at their output pins, and observe the input values received from other devices. The controller compares the received data with the expected result. In this way, Boundary-scan provides a mechanism for testing interconnections and integrity of components on Printed Circuits Boards by using the four TAP signals only.
The four IEEE 1149.1 defined mandatory JTAG instructions IDCODE, BYPASS, SAMPLE/PRELOAD, and EXTEST, as well as the AVR specific public JTAG instruction AVR_RESET can be used for testing the Printed Circuit Board. Initial scanning of the data register path will show the ID-code of the device, since IDCODE is the default JTAG instruction. It may be desirable to have the AVR device in reset during test mode. If not reset, inputs to the device may be determined by the scan operations, and the internal software may be in an undetermined state when exiting the test mode. Entering Reset, the outputs of any Port Pin will instantly enter the high impedance state, making the HIGHZ instruction redundant. If needed, the BYPASS instruction can be issued to make the shortest possible scan chain through the device. The device can be set in the Reset state either by pulling the external RESET pin low, or issuing the AVR_RESET instruction with appropriate setting of the Reset Data Register.
The EXTEST instruction is used for sampling external pins and loading output pins with data. The data from the output latch will be driven out on the pins as soon as the EXTEST instruction is loaded into the JTAG IR-register. Therefore, the SAMPLE/PRELOAD should also be used for setting initial values to the scan ring, to avoid damaging the board when issuing the EXTEST instruction for the first time. SAMPLE/PRELOAD can also be used for taking a snapshot of the external pins during normal operation of the part.
The JTAGEN fuse must be programmed and the JTD bit in the I/O register MCUCSR must be cleared to enable the JTAG Test Access Port.
When using the JTAG interface for Boundary-scan, using a JTAG TCK clock frequency higher than the internal chip frequency is possible. The chip clock is not required to run.