OCP-IP Announces Release of OCP 2.1 Specification

PORTLAND, ORE. — March 2, 2005 — Open Core Protocol International Open Core Protocol International Partnership (OCP-IP) today announced that the OCP 2.1 specification will be available at the end of Q1. The specification will now include profiles for the most commonly coupled OCP features and an advanced tagging scheme for enhancements in out-of-order processing.

Profiles speed the designer learning process by recommending sets of OCP features (with the associated configuration options) that are usually combined to solve typical design challenges. The described profiles fall into two categories: those based on IP core role in the larger system and profiles based on bridging to existing interfaces. These profile schemes will cover a large subset of typical design challenges, minimizing the learning process associated with adoption of OCP.

Tagging provides the ability for interconnect and targets in re-ordering transactions to non-conflicting memory addresses within a single thread. Unlike threads, which enforce no ordering restrictions, tagged transactions ensure that read/write hazards are respected by the system. Tagged transactions are particularly attractive for advanced embedded CPU architectures, like the MIPS 24K, which can exploit the parallelism offered by out-of-order transaction processing, but which require consistent memory ordering.

OCP-IP believes a standard is only proven through real-world implementations and products. Many OCP-IP members, companies with world-class SoC design expertise in their own right, have used OCP in numerous production SoC designs. OCP 2.1 utilizes the collective experience of these SoC designers and EDA providers and directly addresses their enhancement requests with the new specification.

Work on OCP 2.1 was executed by members of the OCP-IP Specification Working Group including: MIPS, Nokia, Philips Semiconductor, Sonics Inc., Texas Instruments, and other industry leading companies.

“The community’s working groups are extremely active and have done a tremendous job rapidly evolving the specification,” said Ian Mackintosh, president of OCP-IP. “Adoption of OCP has been dramatic and we are pleased to see the new features of OCP 2.1 utilized in real world implementations like the MIPS 24k.”

“MIPS Technologies adopted OCP-IP as the core interface on the 24K processor family because of the open nature of the consortium in defining the standard and in the technical content of the interface,” said Tom Petersen, director of product marketing at MIPS Technologies. “When 24K cores are used in consumer electronics applications like digital TV or DVD recorders, tagging and other features of the 2.1 version of OCP enable the performance of the 625MHz 24K processor family to shine.” 

About OCP-IP 
The OCP International Partnership Association, Inc. (OCP-IP), formed in 2001, promotes and supports the Open Core Protocol (OCP) as the complete socket standard ensuring rapid creation and integration of interoperable virtual components. OCP-IP’s Governing Steering Committee participants are: Nokia [NYSE: NOK], Texas Instruments [NYSE: TXN], STMicroelectronics [NYSE: STM], Toshiba Semiconductor Group (including Toshiba America TAEC), and Sonics. OCP-IP is a non-profit corporation delivering the first fully supported, openly licensed, core-centric protocol comprehensively fulfilling system-level integration requirements. The OCP facilitates IP core reusability and reduces design time, risk, and manufacturing costs for SoC designs. VSIA endorses the OCP socket, and OCP-IP is affiliated with the VSI Alliance. For additional background and membership information, visit www.OCPIP.org.

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