OpenAMP allows software developers to manage the lifecycle of individual heterogeneous cores in an SoC – including boot, shut down, loading and execution of software – allowing applications to maximise compute performance or to minimise power consumption. Markus Levy, pictured, president of the Multicore Association, noted: “Prior to OpenAMP, there was no easy standard way for a master operating system to oversee discrete heterogeneous and/or AMP cores. Companies had to implement and maintain proprietary implementations.”
The working group, chaired by Tomas Evensen, Xilinx’ CTO for embedded software, will coordinate the collaborative definition and development process for enhancements and future versions of OpenAMP, manage open source contributions and guide technical marketing efforts. “While Xilinx has implemented an initial version of OpenAMP for Zynq products, we believe this is just the tip of the iceberg in taking advantage of the potential capabilities of this framework.”
The working group will also ensure that OpenAMP remains compatible with and leverages other Multicore Association specifications, including the Multicore Communications API.
