This is its entire purpose: to allow for the detection
and triaging of faults.
+* Software may be uploaded and run which sets a bit on
+ one of the peripheral outputs (UART Tx for example).
+ If the UART TX IO Pad was faulty, no possibility existd
+ without Boundary Scan to determine if the peripheral
+ was at fault. With the UART TX pin function being
+ redirected to a JTAG Shift Register, the results of the
+ software setting UART Tx may be detected by checking
+ the appropriate Shift Register bit.
+* Likewise, a voltage may be applied to the UART RX Pad,
+ and the corresponding SR bit checked to see if the
+ pad is working. If the UART Rx peripheral was faulty
+ this would not be possible.
+
<img src="https://libre-soc.org/shakti/m_class/JTAG/jtag-block.jpg"
width=500 />