IEEE Offers Free Download Of SystemC™ System-On-A-Chip Design Standard

Piscataway, NJ - The IEEE is partnering with the Open SystemC Initiative to make downloads of its IEEE 1666™ system-on-chip (SoC) design standard available at no charge. This program, "Get IEEE 1666™", grants public access to IEEE 1666-2005™, "Standard SystemC Language Reference Manual," which is the definitive description of the SystemC design language.

IEEE 1666 addresses the increasing complexity of SoC design. It allows for substantial performance and productivity gains by speeding hardware and software design when architecting systems from concept to verification. It allows for the sharing and reuse of intellectual property (IP) and provides an interoperable modeling platform for developing and exchanging fast system-level C models. It also forms a bridge between architectural design and register-transfer-level implementation and offers a stable platform for developing system-level tools.

SystemC is an integrated platform that tackles design, simulation, verification and architectural modeling challenges for complex SoCs as chip features fall to 65 nm or less. The language reduces the risk of design errors by letting users develop SoC virtual prototypes efficiently to aid in architecture analysis and early software development.

IEEE 1666 was created as an industry collaboration and has been recognized by awards from the IEEE Standards Association to the leaders of the effort: Victor Berman, chair of the SystemC Standardization Working Group and Group Director of Language Standards at Cadence Design Systems; Stuart Swan, chair of the SystemC Technical Committee and Senior Architect at Cadence Design Systems; and John Aynsley, technical editor for the standard and Chief Technology Officer at Doulos. All major electronic design automation companies participated in this standardization effort.

IEEE 1666 was sponsored by the Design Automation Standards Committee within the IEEE Computer Society and by the IEEE-SA Corporate Advisory Group.

SOURCE: IEEE