Editing Accellera (section)

==History==
In 2000, Accellera was founded from the merger of [[Open Verilog International]] (OVI) and [[VHDL International]], the developers of [[Verilog]] and [[VHDL]] respectively. Both were originally formed nine years earlier in 1991.

In June 2009, a merger was announced between Accellera and [[SPIRIT Consortium|The SPIRIT Consortium]], another major EDA standards organization focused on [[intellectual property|IP]] deployment and reuse.<ref name=merger>{{cite news |title=EDA Standards Organizations Accellera and The SPIRIT Consortium Announce Plans to Merge |url=http://eecatalog.com/chipdesign/2009/06/12/eda-standards-organizations-accellera-and-the-spirit-consortium-announce-plans-to-merge/}}</ref> The SPIRIT Consortium obtained [[SystemRDL]] from the SystemRDL Alliance<ref>{{cite news |title=SystemRDL Alliance |url=https://www.denali.com/en/partners/rdl.jsp}}</ref> and then developed [[IP-XACT]]. The merger was completed in April 2010.<ref>{{cite news |title=Standards Organizations Accellera and The SPIRIT Consortium Complete Merger |date=14 Apr 2010 |url=http://workspace.accellera.org/news/pr/view?item_key=6cc7d11a2c9c231b11d13c90fed6e33077c7a44d |access-date=9 May 2015 |archive-date=18 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518080509/http://workspace.accellera.org/news/pr/view?item_key=6cc7d11a2c9c231b11d13c90fed6e33077c7a44d |url-status=dead }}</ref> SPIRIT stood for "Structure for Packaging, Integrating and Re-using IP within Tool-flows".

In December 2011, Accellera and the Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI) approved their merger, adopting the name Accellera Systems Initiative (Accellera) while continuing to develop [[SystemC]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Accellera and Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI) Approve Merger, Unite to Form Accellera Systems Initiative |url=http://workspace.accellera.org/news/pr/view?item_key=f27cc80b296f97da1746984c3615407770f4c442}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Accellera and Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI) Approve Merger, Unite to Form Accellera Systems Initiative |url=http://www.design-reuse.com/news/27946/accellera-osci-merger.html}}</ref>

In October 2013, Accellera acquired the [[Open Core Protocol]] (OCP) standard, the intellectual property of the [[Open Core Protocol International Partnership Association|OCP International Partnership]] (OCP-IP).<ref>{{cite news |title=Accellera Systems Initiative Acquires Open Core Protocol Standard and Infrastructure to Strengthen Interoperability in Electronic Standards Development |date=15 Oct 2013 |url=http://workspace.accellera.org/news/pr/view?item_key=5e3bd6841d7dea50c6bd262f0c7c615d60b5f1a5}}</ref>

===The SPIRIT Consortium===
'''The''' '''SPIRIT Consortium''' was a group of vendors and users of [[electronic design automation]] (EDA) tools, defining standards for the exchange of [[System-on-a-chip]] (SoC) design information.<ref>[http://www.spiritconsortium.org/XMLSchema/SPIRIT Schemas of The SPIRIT Consortium]</ref> The standards defined included [[IP-XACT]], an XML schema for vendor-neutral descriptions of design components, and [[SystemRDL]], a language for describing registers in components.<ref>[http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199700202 Register description format gets 'Spirit' of standardization, Richard Goering, EE Times (05/21/2007 6:00 AM EDT)]</ref> SPIRIT stood for "Structure for Packaging, Integrating and Re-using IP within Tool-flows".

In June 2009 it was announced that SPIRIT would merge with Accellera.<ref>[http://www.accellera.org/pressroom/2009/Accellera_SPIRIT_Merger061109_FINAL.pdf "EDA Standards Organizations Accellera and The SPIRIT Consortium Announce Plans to Merge"], press release, Accellera. June 11, 2009</ref>

==== SPIRIT membership ====
There were four levels of membership in the SPIRIT consortium. The ''Board of Directors'' (BoD) was the ruling body.<ref>[http://www.spiritconsortium.org/about/roster#board_of_directors Board of Directors]</ref> Members around the time of the merge were:
* [[ARM Holdings]]
* [[Cadence Design Systems]]
* [[Freescale Semiconductor]]
* [[LSI Corporation]]
* [[Mentor Graphics]]
* [[NXP Semiconductors]]
* [[STMicroelectronics]]
* [[Synopsys]]
* [[Texas Instruments]]

''Contributing members'' performed the standardization work and donate time and effort to the production of new specifications.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100426001830/http://www.spiritconsortium.org/about/roster#contributing Contributing Members]</ref>

''Reviewing member'' status was a free membership for companies. These get early access to specifications to facilitate a deep review round of each proposal before it goes public.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100426001830/http://www.spiritconsortium.org/about/roster#associate Associate Members]</ref>

''Associate member'' status was similar to a reviewing membership but for academics and other not-for-profit organizations.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100426001830/http://www.spiritconsortium.org/about/roster#reviewing Reviewing Members]</ref>

===Open Core Protocol International Partnership Association===
The ''Open Core Protocol International Partnership Association, Inc.'' ('''OCP-IP''') was an independent, non-profit semiconductor industry consortium formed to administer the support, promotion and enhancement of the [[Open Core Protocol]] (OCP). OCP was the first fully supported, openly licensed, comprehensive, interface socket for semiconductor intellectual property (IP) cores. The mission of OCP-IP was to address problems relating to design, verification, and testing which are common to IP core reuse in "[[plug and play]]" [[system on a chip]] (SoC) products. This initiative comprehensively fulfills system-level integration requirements by promoting [[IP core]] reusability and reducing design time, risk and manufacturing costs for SoC designs. Design teams developing consumer, [[data processing]], [[Telecommunication|telecom]] (wireless or wired), [[datacom]] and mass storage applications can gain significant benefits from the OCP-IP solution.