Apple Computer has announced availability of the FireWire Reference Platform 2.0 for embedded use in FireWire devices. With its core service architecture and higher-level protocol layers for FireWire, this platform can be used by device manufacturers to rapidly add the high-speed IEEE 1394 Serial Bus to peripheral and consumer electronics products such as digital cameras, set-top boxes, televisions, and music systems.

FireWire Reference Platform 2.0 is comprised of two parts. The first, the "Zayante core," is based on the "TNF" software that was acquired by Apple from Zayante in April of 2002. The platform is designed to run on multiple embedded and real-time operating systems, and provides a rich collection of FireWire services. The core services provide bus management, configuration, transactions, and real-time transfer, generic to any FireWire device. Additional layers support common FireWire protocols such as SBP-2 and AV/C, including a rich collection of AV/C sub-units.

The second part, the "PHY RTL and testbenches," is based on the "TNF" PHY digital core RTL and testbench that was acquired by Apple from Zayante in April of 2002. It comprises a complete Verilog RTL for a scalable 1394b PHY digital core, a PHY behavioral model written in Vera, adapted from and closely following the published C code, an abstract link layer model written in Vera for traffic generation and checking, supporting both directed and random tests, an analog port model and an analog link interface model written in Verilog, and three testbenches structured from various of these components complete with over 1200 tests.

The platform contains the core source and sample code, and is available for download under an evaluation license. If you agree to the terms of the evaluation license, download the FireWire Reference Platform here.

If, after evaluation, you would like to obtain a license to develop or distribute assemblies incorporating the FireWire Reference Platform or modifications, please download, print, and follow the directions in this Implementation License and Checklist, complete it according to the attached checklist and mail two original signed Implementation License forms to the Software Licensing address on the checklist. Your license will become effective when signed by Apple.

Interested developers: for more developer-related information about FireWire technologies, please e-mail firewire@apple.com.

Apple hosts a mailing list for users of the FireWire Reference Platform. To join, please see the FireWire Reference Platform Mailing List.

Updated: 2006-12-01