OCP-IP highlights successful implementation of advanced OCP features in leading-edge designs

BEAVERTON, USA: OCP-IP announced the successful adoption and implementation of sophisticated OCP interface features, including 2-dimensional (2-D) burst and power management, by innovative designs like the OMAP 4 platform from Texas Instruments Inc. (TI).

Leveraging OCP in integrated circuit (IC) development allows designers to build their cores independent of specific bus protocols, and of any particular design implementation. This ensures easier reuse of OCP-compliant cores across multiple system-on-chip (SoC) designs. OCP eliminates the need to repeatedly modify the core itself and preserves fully reusable verification and test benches by defining all the core’s natural interface capabilities to be presented in an unchanging, universally understood manner.

For the most sophisticated embedded multimedia and graphics processors demanding maximum memory system performance at minimum power consumption, the OCP protocol offers features such as 2-D bursts and safe core connect/disconnect for power management.

The advanced 2-D burst feature ensures the highest memory system performance for advance graphics implementations, while the power management feature defines a new connection protocol that allows the power management hardware to disconnect the OCP interface without losing any transaction, so the manager may then independently shut off power. Detailed technical articles discussing the use of 2-D bursting and power management can be found by clicking on the links provided.

The first major SoC products using these sophisticated protocol features of the OCP protocol are now appearing on the market.

“TI’s OMAP 4 platform calls on the OCP’s 2-D burst feature to help improve DRAM efficiency for video and still image processing. Other OCP features such as core disconnect, out-of-order transaction completion, and single-request-multiple-data also benefit the OMAP 4 technology,” said James Aldis, MPU and DRAM Architecture Leader, Wireless Business Unit, TI. “These OCP components play a role in achieving the high performance and low power capabilities that make the OMAP 4 applications processor the industry’s most advanced mobile multimedia platform."

The OMAP 4 platform is the fourth generation of TI’s OMAP family to utilize the OCP interface. The OMAP4430 processor contains more than 100 OCP-compliant building blocks.

TI is a Governing Steering Committee member of OCP-IP.

“OCP-IP not only provides the OCP specification, but also a complete infrastructure that allows our members to quickly and easily implement OCP into world-class leading edge designs like the OMAP platform,” said Ian Mackintosh, president OCP-IP. “Standards are only proven through real-world implementations, and our member companies have adopted OCP and applied it in production SoC designs shipping approximately one billion units annually.”