The DesignWare Standard DDR controller family consists of two high performance families of controller components, the DDR Protocol Controllers (PCTLs) and the DDR Memory Controllers (MCTLs).

The family of PCTLs deliver efficient bandwidth with minimum latency and provides the designers with transparent access and complete control of the memory subsystem. The PCTL serves the memory control needs of applications with simple transactions that do not require an internal scheduler, and can also be deployed with custom-designed memory management units. The PCTL SoC application bus interface supports a lowest-latency "native application interface" (NIF). The DDR2/3-Lite PCTL is compatible with both the DesignWare DDR2/3-Lite PHY IP and the DesignWare DDR2/DDR PHY IP (only supporting DDR2 mode). The DDR3/2 PCTL is compatible with DesignWare DDR3/2 PHY IP.

The family of MCTLs offer an advanced multi-port memory controller which accepts memory access requests from up to 32 application-side host ports and applies re-ordering rules and port prioritization to optimize the command execution and improve data bus utilization. Application-side interfaces can be connected to the MCTL either through the standard AMBA AXI/AHB bus interfaces or via Synopsys custom-defined HMI or PMI interfaces. The DDR2/DDR MCTL is compatible with DesignWare DDR2/DDR PHYs. The DDR2/3-Lite MCTL is compatible with both the DesignWare DDR2/3-Lite PHY IP and the DesignWare DDR2/DDR PHY IP (only supporting DDR2 mode). The DDR3/2 MCTL is compatible with DesignWare DDR3/2 PHY IP.

All products in the DesignWare Standard DDR controller family include software configuration registers, which are accessed through a separate register interface.