| 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. In addition, the 'OCP Inside' section of the OCP-IP website
contains a presentation describing some of the many commercial products
which have been developed using OCP technology. |
|
| 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. |
|
|
