OCP-STBus plug-in methodology

1. OCP-STBus plug-in methodology Giovanni Strano

2. OCP & IP integration in SoCs The OCP-STBus bridge The integration flow Conclusion Outline

3. OCP & IP integration in SoCs The OCP-STBus bridge The integration flow Conclusion Outline

4. IP re-using is becoming key as number of SoC transistors is increasing Buying third-party IPs helps amortize design and manufacturing costs. On the flip side, purchased IPs need to be verified and integrated → a delay that the IP was meant to eliminate The ‘Make or Buy’ Dilemma

5. IP Integration Issues • Custom wrappers are needed for each imported IP interface, and IP-wrapper interface needs to be verified at both protocol & signal level IP2 IP1 IP3 system IC

6. OCP (Open Core Protocol): Core-centric protocol defining requirements for IP Cores communication in terms of protocol, side-bands and test harness signals. Provides a common look to any kind of IP OCP may be interfaced to any on-chip interconnect Where OCP Can Help?

7. Outline • OCP & IP integration in SoCs • The OCP-STBus bridge • The integration flow • Conclusion

8. The STBus is a parametric & modular interconnect suited for high-perfomance on-chip communications. STBus Overview Nodes Size converters Master IPs Slave IPs Type converters Nodes

9. STBus provides interface components to easily integrate IP cores to the interconnect They help separate IP functionality from communication They allow protocol bridging for IPs with different interfaces Interfacing IPs to the STBus

10. Allows OCP master IPs to be attached to an STBus backbone Converts OCP transactions into STBus type III ones RTL written in a parametric way Shape of STBus traffic is programmable on-the-fly The OCP-STBus Bridge

11. Main features Supports all OCP commands Supports up to 32-bit addresses Data bus multiple of 8 bits Full support for OCP bursts Internal FIFOs ensure smooth data flow Multiple functional modes fit both bandwidth and latency sensitive conversion Bridge details

12. Manually connecting IP interfaces is both tedious and error-prone Even worse with OCP, as interface signals may vary with OCP master configuration. The bridge must be configured in term of functionality and STBus traffic generation Integration Issues Automation is key for a reliable integration

13. Outline • OCP & IP integration in SoCs • The OCP-STBus bridge • The integration flow • Conclusion

14. STBus interconnect Corekit OCP Bridge Corekit Synopsys coreBuilder OCP bridge Generic RTL OCP IP RTL config file OCP IP RTL Synopsys coreAssembler Plugin Netlist Flow Overview

15. Step 1: Loading an OCP IP

16. Step 1: Loading an OCP IP (cont’d)

17. Step 2: Setting the STBus I/f parameters

18. 3 - Manually refine connections 4 - Generate configured RTL for the Bridge 5 - Verify your subsystem at functional level 6 - Synthesize your subsystem Last Steps...

19. STBus capable to support many OCP configurations Integration flow based on Synopsys coreTools™ Custom script to parse OCP I/f configuration file The OCP-STBus bridge configuration is automated The same environment can be (re)-used to integrate all SoC components Conclusions

20. THANK YOU!