Summary

In this chapter, we introduced buses and interconnects and their crucial roles in putting modern SoCs together. We explored the defining functional features of buses and interconnects and the background behind them. We also looked at the ARM AMBA standards by revisiting their historical evolution and how SoC design complexity also required an evolving standard that can accommodate and help with designing higher performance and features-rich SoCs. We explored all the relevant bus protocols that make up the AMBA standard, their features and characteristics, and what makes them suitable for a specific connectivity need. We also looked at example implementations to get a feel of how these buses are used in modern SoCs. Then, we covered the OCP standard, its bus characteristics and features, and what makes it appealing for many application domains in the SoC design space. We compared the AMBA standard and the OCP bus protocol and how they can be bridged to accommodate mixed standard...