VSIA will set platform-based design standards

When VSIA announced the formation of the study group earlier this year, it said the group would help define platforms, identify design flows, and identify needed standards that might facilitate the handoff between creators and users of platforms. One task the study group acco mplished was to set definitions of "platforms" and "platform-based design."

Altizer said the DWG is now finalizing its taxonomy of terms related to platform-based design, and is working closely with VSIA's recently-established hardware dependent software DWG. Altizer said his DWG hopes to finish its taxonomy work by the third quarter, then issue a white paper on abstraction and implementation levels in current methodologies.

"We want to establish a road map for the DWG and a list of deliverables by the end of the year, and set forth specifications on platform abstraction levels, and handoff between platform producers and consumers, early next year," Altizer said. That implies a definition of models and architectural views, he noted.

This activity is needed because methodologies and levels of abstractions for platforms are currently not well defined. In fact, the very word "platform" is vaguely defined, and is being used in different ways by different vendors, Altizer said.

Setting definitions

The platform-based design DWG has defined a system-on-chip platform as "a library of virtual components and an architectural framework, consisting of a set of integrated and pre-qualified software and hardware Virtual Components (VCs), models, EDA and software tools, libraries and methodology, to support rapid product development through architectural exploration, integration and verification."

Platform-based design is defined as "an integration-oriented approach emphasizing systematic reuse, for developing complex products based upon platforms and compatible hardware and software VCs, intended to reduce development risks, costs and time-to-market."

Altizer noted that platform-based design, to date, has been pretty much a "bottoms-up" approach where chip makers put together designs for specific applications and try to reuse them. "We see a transition going on where there's greater concern with system and software issues, and full system-level support," he said. "We want to add a top-down component so we can understand, from the architecture, how to use the platform, rather than just building it up from available components."