June 6, 2005 --The Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI) today announced the delivery of the SystemC Transaction-Level Modeling (TLM) Standard 1.0. The new TLM standard defines application programming interfaces (APIs) and provides a library that implements a foundation layer upon which interoperable transaction-level communication can be built.

Design at the transaction-level lets users efficiently develop system-on-chip (SoC) virtual prototypes to assist in architecture analysis and enable early software development, before availability of any physical prototype. Transaction-level IP models are also ideal golden reference models that can be directly embedded into functional verification environments, maximizing investments in high-level models. In addition, transaction-level modeling increases simulation performance more than 100 fold making it possible to meaningfully validate system functionality. These high simulation speeds are also required for the validation of IP in the context of the system. SystemC's ability to effectively span abstraction levels from algorithm to TLM and RTL makes it the ideal framework for high-level modeling as well as system validation.

"The SystemC TLM 1.0 kit was unanimously approved by the OSCI's Steering Group and Board for public release on the SystemC website," said Mark Milligan, OSCI president. "We are pleased to note that today it is in use at major companies, with the intent to use it as a corporate-wide standard."

"More than 50 TLM working-group members have worked for over two years in development and review of the standard APIs and open source library. OSCI is delivering a canonical TLM foundation that enables the industry to widely adopt Transaction-Level Modeling techniques," said Frank Ghenassia, OSCI TLM Working Group chair.

"This standard is the result of a number of companies cooperating in the definition and necessary documentation. It is another step in enabling both ecosystems and interoperability between companies to grow. Building on this standard, system-level simulation will take another step in becoming an accepted phase in the development of complex SoC system designs," said Ralph von Vignau, an OSCI Board member.