VSIA Launches Software Reuse Initiative

The manufacturer says . . .

Murray Disman says . . .

VSIA Launches Embedded Software Reuse Initiatives at the Embedded Systems Conference, San Francisco Key Industry Executives Address System-on-a-Chip (SoC) Software and Platform-Based Design Problems at VSIA's General Meeting LOS GATOS, Calif.-- Mar. 5, 2002--During the VSI Alliance (VSIA) General Meeting at the Embedded Systems Conference, San Francisco, on March 14, 2002, the VSIA will launch its Embedded Software Reuse Initiatives to help solve the increasing embedded software design productivity gap in SoCs. Addressing the critical need for these initiatives, featured speaker Robert Payne, U.S. CTO & VP/GM of System ASIC Technology, Philips Semiconductors, will discuss current embedded software reuse and platform-based design issues for SoC. The formation of VSIA's new Hardware-dependent Software (HdS) Development Working Group (DWG), Platform-Based Design (PBD) Study Group, and VSIA's specific plans to address these embedded software issues will be announced by new co-chairs Michael Kaskowitz, VP/GM Embedded Systems Division of Mentor Graphics, and Bob Altizer, VSIA individual member, formerly with Motorola. Also at this meeting, VSIA's important work in the areas of Virtual Component Transfer (VCT) and Signal Integrity (SI) will be presented by William McVay, VSIA VCT DWG chairman and IP coordinator, Alcatel; and Raminderpal Singh, VSIA Analog-Mixed Signal (AMS) SI Subgroup chairman, and senior engineer, RF/AMS Design Kits Development, International Business Machines Corp.

The VSI Alliance (VSIA), in addition to forming its new Hardware-dependent Software (HdS) Development Working Group (DWG), has set up the Platform-Based Design (PBD) study group. The interest in embedded software arose from the realization that companies were spending significant effort on the development of software for embedded applications rather than on the hardware development. The initial efforts of the HdS DWG will focus on specifications and standards relating to software that is directly in contact with, or significantly affected by the hardware that it executes on, or can directly influence the behavior of that hardware. Its plans include the creation of a taxonomy of terms and specifications for software reuse and standard HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) interfaces. The group will also work on extending existing VSIA specifications to software IP. Examples of HdS software include device drivers, DSP algorithms, BIOS, those parts of an RTOS that interact directly with hardware, and networking stacks and protocol stacks implemented in hardware. The DWG intends to include embedded-systems development tools such as compilers, debuggers, assemblers, and cross-assemblers as HdS. According to the VSIA, the initial plan of the PBD group includes creating a clear definition of SoC platforms, developing a taxonomy for platforms, and defining the charter to become a DWG. The interest in platform-based design is because many in the industry feel that platforms can be the catalyst for the systematic reuse of IP and for the rapid development and integration of derivative SoC products.

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