The purpose of the Experimental Boundary Scan project (EBSp) is to provide completely open and flexible software support for commercially available JTAG/IEEE 1149-1 boundary scan master (BSM) controllers. BSM controllers are used to provide JTAG test bus control capability in various hardware platforms. The EBSp aims to provide adequate software support, which will facilitate the integration of these devices into platforms running under the Linux operating system and x86 architecture.

Currently the EBSp provides a Linux device driver for the Texas Instruments SN74ACT8990 BSM. Higher level software tools such as a hardware independent Serial Vector Format (SVF) parser with plug-in modules and Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) are also available.