New device provides PoE designed for test farms

With its Power-over-Ethernet capability, SEGGER’s J-Link PRO PoE, a new member of the J-Link family, is the ideal programming and debug probe for creating fast, automated, massively parallel, and reliable test farms. Quality assurance demands testing, testing, and more testing. The solution makes automated mass testing simple as it has all the features of the J-Link PRO and the ability to be powered through Ethernet. Power can be supplied to the target via a debug interface or a USB-A connector.

The option to supply power over Ethernet makes power to the device very straightforward to control: it can be switched on and off remotely employing J-Link software. This is excellent for power cycling and rebooting or turning off devices not in use.

As well as controlling power, with a J-Link PRO PoE test farm, it is attainable to download firmware, run, debug, and test software on multiple devices simultaneously. Users can access devices from anywhere in the world using the J-Link Remote Server software or via remote access to the LAN, typically using a VPN tunnel.

“We engineered the J-Link PRO PoE, especially for test farms running many target boards in parallel,” says Rolf Segger, founder of SEGGER. “These test farms can access the same hardware in different configurations or a variety of completely different boards and with a variety of toolchains. The Power-over-Ethernet feature replaces the power switch, and the farm adapter minimises the wiring requirement and produces a very clean overall look. Testing new software is very easy with a well-designed test farm.”

The built-in web server makes manual configuration easy. Ethernet enables the use of the debug probe far away from the PC, providing electrical isolation.

A test farm is also ideal for firmware CI/CD, whereby automated testing is integrated into the development process. Harnessing Jenkins, a source control system such as Git, and a J-Link-controlled test farm, source code changes by any engineer can be automatically tested with ease and can simplify regression testing, patches, and release engineering.

As with the J-Link PRO, it comes with licenses for all software in the J-Link software suite.