I often see the terms "ST-LINK" and "JTAG" when reading documentation for various MCU development boards. The documentation seems to often assume that the reader is familiar with these terms and so doesn't really explain any details.

Would someone be able to give me some idea of what these mean and why we care when using these boards?

The boards I'll soon be playing with are the STM32F769I-DISC0 and the smaller STM32F407G-DISC1.

Thanks

 

JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) is an industry standard used by many MCU developers.

ST-LINK is specific to ST DISCO boards. You really need only two signals with ST-LINK, SWCLK and SWDIO.
If you are developing using STM32F407G-DISCO and STM32F769I-DISCO you don't have to worry about it. The ST-LINK connections are already on board.

If you want to program a target MCU, I can show you how to use the ST-LINK on the STM32F407G-DISCO to program and debug your target MCU.