Design and Synthesis of AMBA APB Protocol for SoC

Abstract

The AMBA (Advanced Microcontroller Bus Architecture) and APB (Advanced Peripheral Bus) protocol is a widely used bus protocol designed by ARM for integrating peripheral devices into a system-on- chip (SoC) design. It provides a low-power, low-complexity interface that allows efficient communication between the master and slave devices within the SoC. The APB protocol offers a straightforward and flexible architecture, making it suitable for a wide range of SoC applications. It supports a single-master, multiple-slave bus structure, where an APB master can communicate with multiple APB slave devices. This architecture enables seamless integration of various peripheral devices, such as timers, UARTs, I/O controllers, and more, into the SoC. One of the key advantages of the APB protocol is its power efficiency. It achieves this by utilizing a simplified set of signals and reduced complexity compared to other bus protocols. The APB bus operates based on a common clock signal, ensuring proper timing and synchronization of data transfers while minimizing power consumption.