| 1: |
How did the organization get its name, OCP-IP? |
| A: |
The organization is named after the technology it centers on, the
Open Core Protocol specification, and in recognition of the
international partners that are supporting this socket interface in
their SoC design projects. |
|
| 2: |
What are the key capabilities of OCP technology? |
| A: |
OCP is a socket interface specification that enables
comprehensive, standardized definitions of a semiconductor IP core's
unique on-chip interfaces. OCP is not a single definition, but
instead provides the ability to capture all of a core's signals
without imposing limitations on the interaction of the core with a
system. Rather than define rigid signal protocols a core must
implement, the protocol provides a consistent framework for the
identification of all aspects of on-chip data, test and control flows
to or from a core. An OCP interface is also able to be adapted to
support new IP core capabilities as a core evolves, without having to
resort to a complete re-design of the interface. |
|
| 3: |
What are the advantages of OCP technology? |
| A: |
Using OCP, intellectual property designers can make their cores
independent of specific bus protocols, and hence of any particular
design implementation. This allows easier reuse of OCP-compliant
cores across multiple SoC designs. Traditionally designers have an
ongoing task to support each design's selected bus protocols by
modifying a core's interface protocols, then the verification suite,
then the test bench, then documenting and supporting that
design-dependent version of the core. OCP eliminates the need to
repeatedly modify the core itself, and preserves the verification and
test benches by defining all the core's natural interface
capabilities to be presented in an unchanging, universally understood
manner. The addition of a simple bus-specific wrapper, bus-bridge or
veneer is then all that would be needed to enable an interface into a
specific SoC design. While impossible in a custom interface
environment, OCP enables software automation for the creation of
these bridges since with an OCP-interfaced core, the signals are
easily bridged between the two well-defined sets of interconnect
signals for the bus and the core. The main advantage of using OCP is
therefore dramatically improved IP core reusability, which leads
directly to a more predictable and productive SoC design. |
|
| 4: |
Isn't OCP just another bus interface? Why do we need
it? |
| A: |
OCP is not a rigid bus interface; it is a comprehensive,
core-centric "socket," and as such resides above the level of
abstraction of a bus. Bus interfaces rigidly tie a core's
communications protocol to that bus' signals alone, often shrouding a
core's full capabilities. With a flexible socket, a core's
computational activity is separated from its on-chip communications,
allowing full potential of the core to be delivered as needed. If a
specific bus interface is used on a core, that core must be
re-designed to permit connection to any other bus, or connected with
different capabilities to that same bus. So, only the OCP socket
affords the ability to be both design approach and vendor neutral.
Member companies need to efficiently share the OCP socket -- the only
complete, fully supported and vendor neutral path to a "plug and
play"-style SoC design. |
|
| 5: |
What is the charter of OCP-IP? |
| A: |
The charter of OCP-IP is to evolve, promote and fully support the
OCP standard and its adopters. |
|
| 6: |
Why was the organization formed? |
| A: |
Several of our founding board members saw the requirement for a
well-supported and open, industry socket standard as fundamental to
address time-to-market issues and design success and felt that the
OCP socket was the best and fastest route to secure that
infrastructure. |
|
| 7: |
What is the mission of OCP-IP? |
| A: |
OCP-IP's mission is to promote and support OCP as the complete
socket standard that ensures rapid creation and integration of
interoperable virtual components. |
|
| 8: |
Why is a member organization needed to promote OCP
technology? |
| A: |
A stand-alone paper specification is not enough to make it an
easy-to-use standard. Generally, any company employing an internal
standard is compelled to develop at least minimum tools, verification
suites and support to help users embrace that standard. The
inefficiencies thus become enormous with everyone doing their "own
thing"; which also results in the inability to exchange and re-use
blocks efficiently. A single body, operating with the sole interests
of its members in mind for a common standard, has been the proven
method to consolidate and share the total workload to the benefit of
the entire community. Metcalf's law tells us that the value of a
single technology increases geometrically with the number of users; a
great return for the membership! |
|
| 9: |
How is OCP-IP organized? |
| A: |
OCP-IP is a non-profit company with 3 levels of participating
membership- Governing Steering Committee, Sponsor and Community. For
a complete list of member benefits, please visit our Web site at
www.ocpip.org. |
|
| 10: |
What is the long-term goal for OCP-IP? |
| A: |
OCP-IP wants to see an OCP socket in every System-on-Chip (SoC)
design. An open industry standard is fundamentally required to
further the automation of the design process and speed SoC
implementation. |
|
| 11: |
Why should ASIC Houses, IDM's, IP providers or systems
companies join OCP-IP? |
| A: |
Any company involved in SoC design needs a socket upon which to
build, define and support its IP blocks (cores) to ensure rapid
assembly and integration. Similarly, any provider of IP blocks would
like to provide them in a single well?defined protocol that is
immediately available and usable by their customers. Members of
OCP-IP do not have to expend effort maintaining their own interfaces
or their associated verification and test suites, tools and
infrastructure. Both legacy and new cores can be made to be OCP
compliant. It is inevitable that all such companies will seek to
embrace a complete solution that both supports their needs and offers
support and services for easy adoption. |
|
| 12: |
What is Sonics' role in OCP-IP? |
| A: |
Sonics is a founding member of OCP-IP and is now a member of the
Governing Steering Committee. The original technology has been
donated and legally provided by Sonics to OCP-IP. This ensured the
widest availability of the only complete, fully-supported and vendor
neutral socket solution in the industry. Sonics was the originator of
OCP and a proponent and user of socket-based, plug and play SoC
design. |
|
| 13: |
Has OCP-IP conducted a patent search to check for patent
liabilities surrounding the OCP socket? |
| A: |
We looked at the body of work that already publicly exists in
that area with our attorneys, and concluded that there was nothing to
patent in an address/data interface since there is very little
intellectual content. OCP, in its most basic form, is much simpler
than other current interfaces since it does not have to manage any
particular "bus" functions. Effectively, OCP is no more likely to
infringe on a patent than, say, PCI or ISA. The basic rule is this:
doing patent searches without a specific aspect of technology is a
long, unreliable, often pointless and fruitless endeavor. |
|
| 14: |
When will products based on OCP technology enter the
marketplace? |
| A: |
The products and services of OCP-IP are ready now and have been
provided to members since 3Q01 for use in their SoC designs. Even
prior to the founding of OCP-IP, Sonics' customers had proven the OCP
within many SoC designs at companies that include Broadcom, Hughes
Network Systems, PMC-Sierra, and Intel. OCP-IP members are shown on
the Web site, and they often choose to comment upon their products
and provide Web links. |
|
| 15: |
What are some of the key or most common applications for
OCP? |
| A: |
OCP is largely agnostic with respect to application domain. It
provides an interface between types of SoC cores and subsystems that
are extraordinarily diverse. Due to its configurability, scalability
and generality, OCP has been used everywhere from low-power to
high-performance applications; cell phones,
multimedia/digital-convergence, set-top-box, wireless and wired
networking are just some of the many application areas where OCP has
been successfully used. |
|
| 16: |
How does my company become an OCP-IP member? |
| A: |
Becoming a member is easy. Complete the Membership Application
located at www.ocpip.org and fax to OCP
International Partnership at 1-503-644-6708. |
|
| 17: |
How can I find out more about OCP-IP's University
Program? |
| A: |
We have a comprehensive datasheet which clearly describes the
program available at our Web site. If you have further questions in
addition to those, simply e-mail admin@ocpip.org. There is a huge
amount of interest in our University Program, and we have top
universities from many parts of the world already participating. |
|
| 18: |
Do I have to join OCP-IP to use OCP? |
| A: |
The OCP specification is freely available to everyone for
research. Like every other commercial standard (such as PCI, USB,
InfiniBand, etc.), OCP-IP was formed to promote OCP and requires the
rules of a membership body to enhance and evolve the standard in a
coordinated fashion. We have a number of low-cost membership paths
for universities and small companies and the high-value
infrastructure we provide massively outweighs the relatively minor
membership fees. It is necessary for people to be members to receive
the free tools and technology that allows them to validate OCP
compliance. You may use the specification, develop a chip and ship
it, but you may not claim OCP compliance unless you are a member of
OCP-IP. |
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