Press Release
The Open SystemC Initiative and the Open Core Protocol
International Partnership Join Forces to Target TLM Layer
Standardization
Partnership Aims to Ensure an Interoperable Modeling Infrastructure
While Eliminating Redundant Effort and Conflicts
SAN JOSE, Calif. — May 31, 2004 — The Open SystemC
Initiative (OSCI) and Open Core Protocol International Partnership (OCP-IP)
today announced they are joining forces to work toward the common goal of an
interoperable modeling infrastructure for Transaction Level Modeling (TLM)
with SystemC. This partnership was formed in response to the growing numbers
of SystemC users moving to TLM and the need for standardization of the
language and the mechanisms needed to support successful TLM.
OSCI is dedicated to the development and promotion of SystemC, a C++ based
class library for high-level electronic system design. OCP-IP is dedicated
to making a common standard for intellectual property (IP) core interfaces
that facilitate “plug and play” System-on-Chip (SoC) design. OCP-IP has
chosen SystemC as a leading platform for delivering transaction-level models
of OCP-IP based communication channels. At the same time, the Transaction
Level Modeling Working Group of OSCI is defining an API for
transaction-level communication for standardization.
The two organizations have entered into this partnership to ensure that the
OCP-IP transaction-level models can be built in the future on top of the
standard OSCI APIs. By proactively working together, the two organizations
can deliver an optimized solution and eliminate the emergence of two
competing standards. OSCI plans to provide generic TLM transport
functionality, while OCP-IP plans to use this to implement models of their
specific communication channels.
The OSCI TLM working group effort has attracted a great deal of attention,
drawing its 52 members from organizations such as ARM, CoWare, Cadence
Design Systems, Calypto Design Systems, Eklectic Ally, Forte Design Systems,
Fujitsu, Mentor Graphics, NEC, Philips, Summit Design and the University of
Tuebingen. “TLM has emerged as a key enabling methodology for raising the
level of abstraction and breaking the simulation performance barrier,” said
Guido Arnout, president of OSCI. “With SystemC, OSCI has delivered an
industry-accepted standard language and a platform for system level
modeling. Now, together with OCP-IP, we are layering on top of that an
infrastructure and mechanisms for TLM to better serve the evolving needs of
our users.”
The TLM Working Group will have as its first deliverable a set of
definitions and an agreed upon taxonomy for the TLM levels and
methodologies. Development of this document is underway within the working
group. The working group will also define a set of APIs and the reference
implementation of classes that implement these APIs. For the underlying TLM
transport, a transport API will be developed to support all the
layers.
“OCP-IP sees transaction-level modeling as very important in enabling
efficient development of SoCs using the Open Core Protocol. OCP 2.0
compliant TLMs have been shipping since last December with thousands of
copies of earlier versions shipped over the last year; we are now
approaching nearly 10,000 downloads of the OCP-IP white paper on SystemC
TLM,” said Ian Mackintosh, president of OCP-IP. “OCP-IP has a proven track
record in developing, shipping and supporting high-quality TLMs, and it is
our goal to contribute to the development of an industry-standard TLM API
and library.”
For OSCI membership information or to learn more about SystemC and its TLM
working group, visit the Web site at www.systemc.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, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics,
United Microelectronics Corporation, Toshiba Semiconductor Group (including
Toshiba America TAEC), 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.
About SystemC and OSCI
The Open SystemC™ Initiative (OSCI) is an independent, not-for-profit
organization composed of a broad range of companies, universities and
individuals dedicated to supporting and advancing SystemC as an open
industry standard for system-level design and verification. The SystemC
language and its prototype reference implementation as a C++ class library
can be downloaded at www.systemc.org.
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