OCP-IP Releases English Language Compliance Checks

PORTLAND, ORE — October 25, 2005 —Open Core Protocol International Partnership (OCP-IP) today announced the availability of a set of English language compliance checks that formally describe the 'legal' constraints for signals on an OCP interface, for members. The compliance checks eliminate the need for “best guess” verification by engineers making certain an OCP interface complies with the specification, assuring verification quality and IP blocks are compatible at system level.

Compliance checks define a set of rules for the OCP specification. Constraints can be as simple as "check that a signal is never 0" or may be complex temporal expressions. If no check is violated by functional and/or formal verification, the logic is proven compliant with the protocol.

The compliance checks can be used in several different ways. Formal tools can use checks to be sure a design never violates them; proving OCP compliance. They can also use the same checks to cover the number of times a given restraint was hit. Functional verification tools can use the properties to build protocol checkers (in Verilog/VHDL/E/SystemC). By applying stimuli to the design under test (DUT) and verifying that protocol checkers are not reporting violations, OCP compliance is verified.

Work on the compliance checks was completed by the OCP-IP Functional Verification working group including representatives from: Jeda Technologies, MIPS, Sonics Inc, Synopsys, Texas Instruments, TransEDA, and Yogitech.

“OCP has a robust, thriving infrastructure supported by many independent companies that provide excellent services and products,” said Ian Mackintosh, president OCP-IP. “We are proud of the leading-edge work completed by our Functional Verification Working Group.

Members may download and review a copy of the compliance checks by visiting the members only section at www.ocpip.org

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 VSIA. For additional background and membership information, visit www.OCPIP.org.