Star-Ip Centric Platforms for SOC

Abstract

We describe the use of star-IP core-based subsystems as the cornerstone of a platform-based design paradigm. An ARM platform is an instantiation of a set of carefully market-targeted architectural-decisions encapsulated in an embedded and configurable subsystem consisting of an ARM core, AMBA™ Communications fabric and a ported operating system (OS). Around this pre-specified sub-system, a derivative-product development-package is supplied. This development package provides for configuration and extension of the platform during the creation of an optimized and differentiated system-on-chip (SoC) design. We describe the structure of this development-package, and its foundation in a set of mutually consistent model-views of the platform design. Each platform model provides the speed and visibility required for specific SoC development tasks: hardware integration and development, hardware dependent software development, application software development, and system verification and validation. In this chapter we describe both the theory of platform support, and a specific ARM instantiation of this: the ARM1136JF-S™ PrimeXsys Platform.