Interoperability between AXI4 Initiator and Target

[bsipl_h]

Hi all,
this question is about having interoperability between AXI4 Initiator and Target,

Say, we’ve the AXI4 Initiator in the Top; this is our deliverable. We’ll also provide a reference AXI4 Target in Test Bench that we test our AXI4 Initiator with. We think that our AXI4 Initiator should be able to interop with a Customer’s AXI4 Target. Is that a fair expectation, or could there be issues arising from the different underlying TLM libraries that the Initiator and Target are built with?

[AmeyaVS]

Hello @bsipl_h,

It depends on how the AXI4 Interfaces are dependent on the TLM-2 Interface features.

If the interface implementation aligns to TLM-2 Interface Base Protocol it should be possible to interoperate.

Also, if the protocol implementation is using TLM-2 Extensions, those should be optional.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Ameya Vikram Singh

[Eyck]

If you really model the performance and timing relevant details of AXI4 the TLM2.0 base protocol is not sufficient. This is due things like burst beats, interleaving, and alike.

This means you need to align with your customer on a protocol specification/implementation. You may find such a specification at https://github.com/Arteris-IP/tlm2-interfaces/blob/develop/doc/axitlm/axi_tlm2_spec.pdf. There you also find an implementation of the protocol at https://github.com/Arteris-IP/tlm2-interfaces/blob/develop/axi/axi_tlm.h

This interface definition is in productive use by commercial IP suppliers which means it is fairly complete and tested. So this might ease the discussion with your customer to agree on the use of the interface defintion.