Rambus

At Rambus, we create cutting-edge semiconductor and IP products, providing industry-leading chips and silicon IP to make data faster and safer.

AXI (Advanced eXtensible Interface)

Table of Contents

  1. What is AXI?
  2. Key Features of AXI
  3. Benefits of AXI
  4. Enabling Technologies
  5. AXI in Automotive and Security Applications
  6. Rambus Technologies and ASIC Designs

What is AXI (Advanced eXtensible Interface)?

AXI is a high-performance, high-frequency bus protocol defined as part of the ARM AMBA (Advanced Microcontroller Bus Architecture) specification. It is designed to facilitate efficient communication between components in system-on-chip (SoC) architectures, such as processors, memory controllers, and peripherals.

Key Features of AXI

  • High Throughput: Supports multiple outstanding transactions and out-of-order data transfers, enabling parallelism and improved performance.
  • Burst Transfers: Allows efficient data movement with burst modes, reducing overhead and latency.
  • Separate Address and Data Channels: Enhances pipelining and concurrency by decoupling control and data paths.
  • Support for Multiple Masters and Slaves: Enables scalable and flexible system design.
  • Low Latency: Optimized for minimal response time in high-speed applications.
 

Benefits of AXI

  • Scalability: Suitable for a wide range of applications from low-power embedded systems to high-performance computing.
  • Modularity: Promotes reuse of IP blocks across different designs.
  • Interoperability: Widely adopted and supported by many IP vendors and EDA tools.
  • Efficiency: Reduces bottlenecks in data movement, crucial for AI, ML, and real-time processing workloads.
 

Enabling Technologies

AXI is commonly used in conjunction with:

  • FPGA and ASIC designs for custom hardware acceleration.
  • AI/ML processors for high-bandwidth memory access.
  • Automotive ECUs for real-time data processing in ADAS and infotainment systems.
  • Secure IP blocks for trusted data movement and isolation.
 

AXI in Automotive and Security Applications

In automotive systems, AXI is used to connect safety-critical components such as ADAS processors, sensor fusion modules, and secure boot mechanisms. Its deterministic behavior and support for fault isolation make it suitable for ASIL-compliant designs under ISO 26262.

Rambus and AXI Integration

Rambus offers high-performance memory, interface, and security IP that integrates with AXI-based systems.

Back to Glossary

Rambus logo