The SPIRIT Consortium Approves IP-XACT Version 1.5

Standard Improves on Register Descriptions; Updates Handed Over to IEEE P1685

NAPA, Calif.-- June 29, 2009 --The SPIRIT Consortium™, a global non-profit organization focused on establishing multi-faceted IP/tool integration standards that drive sustainable growth in electronic design, has approved version 1.5 of its IP-XACT™ specification for handoff to the IEEE P1685 working group. The IP-XACT specification provides a machine readable XML structure for IP modules and systems databooks. The XML data documents many different aspects of electronic design elements, enabling designers using IP-XACT tools to automatically create many different expressions of a design in a consistent and correlated way. Design and verification engineers will benefit from using this available specification through the automation testbench creation and exploration.

IP-XACT 1.5 will be handed off to the IEEE Standards Association for consideration as an industry standard. This technical specification, known as the IP-XACT design-exchange format, comprehensively addresses support for integrated multi-vendor ESL and RTL design and verification flows. The P1685 working group is focused on building industry adoption and ratifying an open industry meta-data standard for IP providers, EDA vendors, and independent design manufacturers to help build real marketplace benefit for efficient design tool and IP integration.

"The SPIRIT Consortium gratefully acknowledges the efforts of its Technical Working Groups for their extensive and dedicated work in bringing the specification to readiness for handoff to the IEEE-SA," said Ralph von Vignau, president of The SPIRIT Consortium. "As The SPIRIT Consortium specifications are adopted, integrated device manufacturers will benefit from faster time-to-market and ease of IP integration by making their design flows IP-XACT-enabled."

Building on the IP-XACT 1.4 specification, this next version of IP-XACT extends the IP-XACT data model to more complete description of the register data and address maps. Several small changes have been made to the schema based on the testing and feedback from the 1.4 release. As always, the Consortium has provided automated transforms to use IP-XACT data written to previous versions. IP-XACT 1.5 is specifically targeted for hand-off to the IEEE P1685 working group for IEEE standardization. The version released to the IEEE is publicly available for informational purposes. Please direct standardization comments to the P1685 working group at feedback@spiritconsortium.org.

The specification will be posted to The SPIRIT Consortium web site at www.spiritconsortium.org/tech/docs. The handoff includes the schema, the TGI, the transforms, and the release notes for use by IEEE. Participating member companies of the P1685 working group are Cadence, Denali, Freescale Semiconductors, LSI Corporation, NXP Semiconductors, ST Microelectronics, Semifore, Synopsys, Accellera, and The SPIRIT Consortium.

On June 11, 2009 EDA industry organizations, Accellera and The SPIRIT Consortium, announced that the organizations’ boards agreed to a merger of the two entities. The union improves the development of language-based and IP standards. Both organizations are aligned on the path to formalize standards through the IEEE. Further details of the merger will be announced at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) in San Francisco, Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 6:00pm - 7:30pm, Moscone Convention Center, Room 114. To register, please visit www.spiritconsortium.org/events/.

About The Consortium

The SPIRIT Consortium is a global organization focused on establishing multi-faceted IP/tool integration standards that drive sustainable growth in electronic design. It is comprised of leading EDA, IP, system integration, and semiconductor companies dedicated to the adoption of a unified set of specifications for configuring, integrating, and verifying IP in advanced SoC design tool sets. For more information on The SPIRIT Consortium and its goals, please visit www.spiritconsortium.org.