RapidIO Connections - April 2003
Technical Working Group Update
The first quarter has been a significant one for RapidIO. As many designs move from CAD tools to silicon, a number of companies have announced and demonstrated working RapidIO silicon. The pace of these events will pick up as the year goes on.
Availability of silicon moves to the forefront of many people’s minds issues of specification stability and interoperability.
The RapidIO specification has been stable for some time. Revision 1.1 of the specification was approved in March of 2001 and represented the first complete and stable version of the specification. Today’s current version 1.2 was completed in June of last year – almost one year ago. It added clarifications at the PHY level together with errata. With more than two years of cumulative soak time, the specification has now reached a level of significant maturity. Evidence of this comes as silicon supporting version 1.2 rolls into the marketplace.
One of the most important responsibilities carried by the Technical Working Group is to keep the specification stable as we address any errata or clarifications needed in the specification. In addition, we will continue to preserve compatibility as work goes forward on future enhancements.
Once stability in the specification has been reached, the success of any interconnect standard promising multi-vendor support depends upon interoperability. As I related in a previous newsletter, the Hardware Interoperability Platform is the foundation needed to enable interoperability testing. With this platform now in place, significant interoperability testing between vendors has already occurred. This activity will gain momentum as additional silicon arrives throughout the year.
In the coming months, the TWG will lead further discussion within the Trade Association regarding what additional activities related to interoperability are needed. Meanwhile, we continue work on future enhancements to the specification that will enable RapidIO to address an even broader range of embedded applications.
Greg Shippen
Chair, Technical Working Group
RapidIO Trade Association
