Organization

Joachim Schlosser: Development and Verification of fast C/C++ Simulation Models for the Star12 Microcontroller

[Next] [Previous] [Previous-tail] [Tail] [Up]

1.2.2. Organization

In order to establish such a unifying vision, vendors of the system-chip industry formed the Virtual Socket Interface Alliance in September 1996. The basic goal of the VSI Alliance is to build technical standards, required to mix and match the Virtual Components from different sources. With specified standards for VCs, the SoC development can be accelerated dramatically.

VSIA is driven by the so-called design working groups (DWGs), which concentrate on specific problems and write the specifications. Up to now, VSI has produced 19 documents. Volunteers of the 177 member companies and 29 individual members staff the DWGs. Among the member companies are nearly all big hardware vendors like Motorola, Infineon Technologies, IBM, Analog Devices and Intel as well as research organizations like the Fraunhofer Institute and many more vendors of hardware, tools and services.

Offices are maintained in Europe, the US and Japan. The Board is a group that directs the work and coordinates public relations and releases. The Board elects a president each year, who guides the direction and policy. The actual administration contains an executive director, a staff and a webmaster. The Technical Committee (TC) is responsible for coordinating the DWGs. A DWG has a chairman and a bunch of volunteers from members. It defines its own objectives. There are the following Design Working Groups:

Analog Mixed-Signal
Implementation/Verification
IP Protection
Manufacturing Related Tests
On-Chip Buses
System-Level Design
Virtual Component Transfer

For more information on the individual DWGs and the VSIA in general refer to their Website [VSI01b].

[Next] [Previous] [Previous-tail] [Front] [Up]