Semiconductor intellectual property core
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In
History
The licensing and use of IP cores in chip design came into common practice in the 1990s.[1] There were many licensors and also many foundries competing on the market. In 2013, the most widely licensed IP cores were from Arm Holdings (43.2% market share), Synopsys Inc. (13.9% market share), Imagination Technologies (9% market share) and Cadence Design Systems (5.1% market share).[2]
Types of IP cores
The use of an IP core in
by its creator and is integrated into a larger design.Soft cores
IP cores are commonly offered as
IP cores are also sometimes offered as generic gate-level
Both netlist and synthesizable cores are called soft cores since both allow a synthesis, placement and routing (SPR) design flow.
Hard cores
Hard cores (or hard macros) are analog or digital IP cores whose function cannot be significantly modified by chip designers. These are generally defined as a lower-level physical description that is specific to a particular process technology. Hard cores usually offer better predictability of chip timing performance and area for their particular technology.[citation needed]
Low-level transistor layouts must obey the target
Sources of IP cores
Licensed functionality
Many of the best known IP cores are
IP cores are also licensed for various peripheral controllers such as for
"Hardwired" (as opposed to software programmable soft microprocessors described above) digital logic IP cores are also licensed for fixed functions such as
coding.Vendors
IP core developers and licensors range in size from individuals to multi-billion-dollar corporations. Developers, as well as their chip-making customers, are located throughout the world.
Silicon Intellectual Property (SIP, Silicon IP) is a
The Silicon IP industry has had stable growth for many years. The most successful Silicon IP companies, often referred to as the Star IP, include
IP hardening
IP hardening is a process to re-use proven designs and generate fast time-to-market, low-risk-in-fabrication solutions to provide Intellectual property (IP) (or Silicon intellectual property) of design cores.
For example, a digital signal processor (DSP) is developed from soft cores of RTL format, and it can be targeted to various technologies or different foundries to yield different implementations. The process of IP hardening is from soft core to generate re-usable hard (hardware) cores[clarification needed]. A main advantage of such hard IP is its predictable characteristics as the IP has been pre-implemented, while it offers flexibility of soft cores. It might come with a set of models for simulations for verification.
The effort to harden soft IP requires employing the quality of the target technology, goals of design and the methodology. The hard IP has been proven in the target technology and application. E.g. the hard core in GDS II format is said to clean in DRC (Design rule checking), and LVS (see Layout Versus Schematic). I.e. that can pass all the rules required for manufacturing by the specific foundry.[4][5]
Free and open-source
Since around 2000,
See also
- List of semiconductor IP core vendors
- Semiconductor
- Semiconductor fabrication plant (foundry)
- Mask work
- Fabless manufacturing
- Integrated circuit layout design protection
References
- ^ Tuomi, Ilkka (2009-12-04). "The Future of Semiconductor Intellectual Property Architectural Blocks in Europe". JRC Publications Repository. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
- ^ Clark, Peter (April 23, 2014). "Cadence breaks into top four in semi IP core ranking". EE Times Europe. No. N/A. Peter Clark. European Business Press SA. Archived from the original on August 2, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
- ^ Kiat Seng Yeo, Kim Tean Ng, Zhi Hui Kong
Intellectual Property for Integrated Circuits , J. Ross Publishing, 2010 ISBN 1-932159-85-1
- ^ http://www.eettaiwan.com/ART_8800406094_480102_AN_71148c3a.HTM Archived 2009-08-04 at the Wayback Machine IP hardening by eetTaiwan Dead link 2011 06 30
- ^ [1] More about IP hardening. An organization (which is set up by government) provides services of IP hardening and IP integration. In Chinese.
- ^ "Licensing :: OpenCores". opencores.org. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
- ^ "RISC-V Cores and SoC Overview". RISC-V Foundation. Archived from the original on 24 April 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
- ^ Daunhauer, Denis. "The relevance of open source intellectual property cores for the IoT development". Internet of Things blog. Deloitte. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
External links
- Open cores "design and publish core" (under LGPL Licence)
- Altera cores Free reference IP cores for FPGAs
- Open Source Semiconductor Core Licensing, 25 Harvard Journal of Law & Technology 131 (2011) Article analyzing the law, technology and business of open source semiconductor cores