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OCP-IP Announces Release of OCP 2.0 Specification

Work Begins on OCP 2.1 with a Focus on Advanced Processor Support

PORTLAND, ORE. — November 17, 2003 — Open Core Protocol International Partnership (OCP-IP), the association providing a common standard for intellectual property core interfaces, or sockets, that facilitate “plug and play” SoC design, today announced availability of the OCP 2.0 specification. The group also announced it has begun work on OCP 2.1 with a focus on advanced processor support for both DSP and embedded applications.

OCP 2.0 was approved for release by the OCP Governing Steering Committee (GSC) after an extensive general member review and now includes: a model for write transfers which provides for precise end-to-end-responses, an enhanced burst model that provides for both burst length and packet style transfers, support for specification of endianness, as well as support for user-defined in-band command data and response extensions which can be used to support features such as parity and Error Correcting Codes. The specification also makes provisions for lite-weight OCP interfaces with read only/write only/FIFO style IP cores and support for lazy memory synchronization.

OCP-IP believes a standard is only proven through real-world implementations and products. Many OCP-IP members, companies with world-class SoC design expertise in their own right, have adopted OCP and have used it in production SoC designs. OCP 2.0 utilizes the collective experience of many of these SoC designers and EDA providers and directly addresses their enhancement requests with the new specification.

Work on OCP 2.0 is executed by members of the OCP-IP Specification Working Group including: Texas Instruments, Nokia, STMicroelectronics, MIPS and other industry leading companies.

“The partnership's working groups are extremely active and have done a tremendous job rapidly evolving the specification,” said Ian Mackintosh, president of OCP-IP. “Adoption of OCP has been quite dramatic and we now have a large number of EDA vendors and IP suppliers offering OCP conforming tools and products. We are excited to begin work on OCP 2.1.”

Copies of the OCP 2.0 specification and a schedule of OCP 2.0 deliverables and collateral are also available at www.ocpip.org.

About OCP-IP
The OCP International Partnership Association, Inc. (OCP-IP) was announced in December 2001 to promote and support the open core protocol (OCP) as the complete socket standard that ensures rapid creation and integration of interoperable virtual components. OCP-IP's Governing Steering Committee participants are: Nokia (NYSE:NOK), Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM), United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE:UMC), Sonics, and other industry leading companies. OCP-IP is a non-profit corporation delivering the first fully supported, openly licensed core-centric protocol that comprehensively fulfills system-level integration requirements. The OCP facilitates IP core reusability and reduces design time and risk, along with manufacturing costs for SoC designs. VSIA endorses the OCP socket, and OCP-IP is an Adoption Group of the VSI Alliance. For additional background and membership information, visit www.OCPIP.org.

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