AMBA: The Standard for On-Chip Communication

AMBA is a freely available open standard for the connection and management of functional blocks in a system-on-chip. AMBA specifications are widely adopted as the standard for on-chip communication and provide a standard interface for IP re-use. This helps reduce the risks and costs of developing multi-processor designs with many controllers and peripherals. Different AMBA specifications outline the interfaces and protocols for use in applications across multiple market areas. Two key specifications include CHI and AXI. CHI defines the architecture for fully coherent, high-performance multi-core systems; AXI is used for a wide range of high-performance applications, including mobile computing, networking, automotive, and high-performance IoT.

Features and Benefits

Flexibility

IP re-use requires a common standard that supports a wide variety of SoCs with different power, performance and area requirements. AMBA has the flexibility to match these requirements, offering design choice and extending performance and scalability to compatible processors.
Widespread Adoption

AMBA specifications have a long heritage of dependability and trust. AMBA is used extensively in standards-based IP worldwide. It is the most widely adopted industry standard for on-chip connectivity for IP products, including memory controllers, interconnects, trace solutions, accelerators, GPUs, and CPUs.
Compatibility

AMBA specifications ensure compatibility and scalability between IP components from different design teams or vendors. Compatible solutions enable design reuse, lower cost of ownership and faster time-to-market.
Comprehensive Support

The wide adoption of AMBA specifications throughout the semiconductor industry has driven a comprehensive market in third party IP products and tools, to support the development of AMBA-based systems.

Resources

Visit the AMBA forum on Arm Community or Arm developer for details.

You can also download AMBA specifications.

For information on how to refer to AMBA specifications, interfaces and protocols download the AMBA style guide.

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