The SPIRIT Consortium Approves IP-XACT Version 1.5

Standard Improves on Register Descriptions; Updates Handed Over to IEEE P1685
NAPA, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
The SPIRIT Consortium, a global non-profit organization focused on establishing
multi-faceted IP/tool integration standards that drive sustainable growth in
electronic design, has approved version 1.5 of its IP-XACT specification for
handoff to the IEEE P1685 working group. The IP-XACT specification provides a
machine readable XML structure for IP modules and systems databooks. The XML
data documents many different aspects of electronic design elements, enabling
designers using IP-XACT tools to automatically create many different expressions
of a design in a consistent and correlated way. Design and verification
engineers will benefit from using this available specification through the
automation testbench creation and exploration.

IP-XACT 1.5 will be handed off to the IEEE Standards Association for
consideration as an industry standard. This technical specification, known as
the IP-XACT design-exchange format, comprehensively addresses support for
integrated multi-vendor ESL and RTL design and verification flows. The P1685
working group is focused on building industry adoption and ratifying an open
industry meta-data standard for IP providers, EDA vendors, and independent
design manufacturers to help build real marketplace benefit for efficient design
tool and IP integration.

"The SPIRIT Consortium gratefully acknowledges the efforts of its Technical
Working Groups for their extensive and dedicated work in bringing the
specification to readiness for handoff to the IEEE-SA," said Ralph von Vignau,
president of The SPIRIT Consortium. "As The SPIRIT Consortium specifications are
adopted, integrated device manufacturers will benefit from faster time-to-market
and ease of IP integration by making their design flows IP-XACT-enabled."

Building on the IP-XACT 1.4 specification, this next version of IP-XACT extends
the IP-XACT data model to more complete description of the register data and
address maps. Several small changes have been made to the schema based on the
testing and feedback from the 1.4 release. As always, the Consortium has
provided automated transforms to use IP-XACT data written to previous versions.
IP-XACT 1.5 is specifically targeted for hand-off to the IEEE P1685 working
group for IEEE standardization. The version released to the IEEE is publicly
available for informational purposes. Please direct standardization comments to
the P1685 working group at feedback@spiritconsortium.org.

The specification will be posted to The SPIRIT Consortium web site at
www.spiritconsortium.org/tech/docs. The handoff includes the schema, the TGI,
the transforms, and the release notes for use by IEEE. Participating member
companies of the P1685 working group are Cadence, Denali, Freescale
Semiconductors, LSI Corporation, NXP Semiconductors, ST Microelectronics,
Semifore, Synopsys, Accellera, and The SPIRIT Consortium.

On June 11, 2009 EDA industry organizations, Accellera and The SPIRIT
Consortium, announced that the organizations` boards agreed to a merger of the
two entities. The union improves the development of language-based and IP
standards. Both organizations are aligned on the path to formalize standards
through the IEEE. Further details of the merger will be announced at the Design
Automation Conference (DAC) in San Francisco, Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 6:00pm -
7:30pm, Moscone Convention Center, Room 114. To register, please visit
www.spiritconsortium.org/events/.

About The Consortium

The SPIRIT Consortium is a global organization focused on establishing
multi-faceted IP/tool integration standards that drive sustainable growth in
electronic design. It is comprised of leading EDA, IP, system integration, and
semiconductor companies dedicated to the adoption of a unified set of
specifications for configuring, integrating, and verifying IP in advanced SoC
design tool sets. For more information on The SPIRIT Consortium and its goals,
please visit www.spiritconsortium.org.

For more information regarding this announcement, please contact Lynn Horobin at
707-265-8193 or lynn@spiritconsortium.org.

The SPIRIT Consortium and IP-XACT are trademarks of The SPIRIT Consortium Inc.
All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders,
and all other trademarks implied or not implied are rightfully owned by the
companies as registered in their country of origin.

The SPIRIT Consortium
Lynn Horobin, 707-265-8193
lynn@spiritconsortium.org

Copyright Business Wire 2009