The Open SystemC Initiative and the Open Core Protocol International Partnership Join Forces to Target TLM Layer Standardization

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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