Extending the ribbon cable should become an option only if you determine that you cannot solve the problem by extending the reach on the other side of the connection, i.e., by making the USB, Ethernet, or Serial connection longer. However, certain test procedures and production environments will require the use of a cable longer than the typical 9-inch flat ribbon cable typically included with P&E hardware interfaces.

Extending the cable length requires special considerations for signal integrity, crosstalk, and electromagnetic interference. P&E recommends using a shielded jacketed cable. This cable configuration is excellent at reducing crosstalk as well as minimizing electromagnetic interference from other devices. Further improvement can be obtained if the wires are also arranged in twisted pairs. Shielded USB cables are inexpensive and easy to rework into a ribbon-cable-type solution. The four wires provided can be used to create a cable for the standard 6-pin BDM header used by many Freescale microprocessors.

In general, the following guidelines should be followed for all cables between the target microprocessor and the P&E hardware interface:

1. Use the shortest cable possible

2. Use shielded cable configurations to reduce parasitic effects

3. Lower the communication frequency.

For certain architectures, the communication frequency can be configured in software by the user. For other architectures, the communication speed is only dependent on the processor's bus frequency. Reducing the bus frequency (ie. disabling the PLL) should improve results.