SystemC modelling for OCP-based SoC design

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Oct 17, 2002

Synopsys and Open Core Protocol International Partnership (OCP-IP) have developed a SystemC modelling methodology for OCP-based SoCs.

Synopsys and Open Core Protocol International Partnership (OCP-IP) have developed a SystemC modelling methodology for OCP-based SoCs.

Nokia, Texas Instruments, Sonics and Synopsys are publishing an application programming interface (API) specification and example models to enable OCP users to use best-in-class SystemC design and verification methodologies.

Designers of complex SoCs can now create SystemC models for OCP-compliant components, enabling a seamless design flow from high-level system specification to OCP-based SoC implementation.

"Users of OCP, such as Texas Instruments and Nokia, now have clear guidelines on how to design OCP-based systems using SystemC", said Joachim Kunkel, vice president of marketing for Intellectual Property and System Level Design at Synopsys.

"This API and the SystemC examples give these companies the methodology to manage design complexity of OCP-based SoCs at higher levels of design abstraction".

The new methodology covers generic modelling of communication with hardware and software components down to cycle-accurate OCP modelling at the transaction level.

OCP-IP members Nokia, TI and Sonics, together with Synopsys, are jointly writing the OCP SystemC API specification.

The API specification comes with SystemC examples, comparable to the widely accepted 'simple_bus' model Synopsys contributed to the Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI) earlier this year.

A white paper is available from the OCP-IP website today at www.OCPIP.org.

The API specification and SystemC example models will be available for download from the contributions area on the OSCI website in Q4 2002.

"The OCP SystemC API will help TI model early IP behaviour in simulation environments and allow us to make architectural and performance tradeoffs without worrying about interfaces", said Maxime Leclercq, system engineer at TI's San Diego Wireless Center.

"Today, when architecting complex SoCs or IP modules, we spend a significant amount of time and energy defining interfaces and internal bus topologies.

SystemC-based OCP transaction models allow system engineers to focus on the real value of the IP, and links high-level performance models with implementation by providing a socket that is scalable to all stages of the design flow".

"From the system designers' perspective, the OCP SystemC API gives us the capability to use communication models for system-level simulation that are easily refinable to the implementation level", said Anssi Haverinen, research manager for Nokia.

"This makes it easy to mix models of different abstraction levels, for example, an RTL model can be plugged into a bus-cycle accurate system-level simulation.

Furthermore, it gives users of other system-level languages OCP transaction-level semantics which can be implemented in those languages, thus providing interface-level interoperability with SystemC models and OCP components".