05/04/2019 Semiconductor intellectual property core - Wikipedia

Semiconductor intellectual property
core
In electronic design a semiconductor intellectual property core, IP core, or IP block is a reusable unit of logic,
cell, or integrated circuit (commonly called a "chip") layout design that is the intellectual property of one party. IP
cores may be licensed to another party or can be owned and used by a single party alone. The term is derived from the
licensing of the patent and/or source code copyright that exist in the design. IP cores can be used as building blocks
within application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs or field-programmable gate array (FPGA) logic designs.

Contents
History
Types of IP cores
Soft cores
Hard cores
Sources of IP cores
Licensed functionality
Vendors
IP hardening
Free and open-source
Aggregators
See also
References
External links

History
The licensing and use of IP cores in chip design came into common practice in the 1990s. There were many licensors
and also many foundries competing on the market. Today, the most widely licensed IP cores are from ARM Holdings
(43.2% market share in 2013), Synopsys Inc. (13.9% market share in 2013), Imagination Technologies (9% market
share in 2013) and Cadence Design Systems (5.1% market share in 2013).[1]

Types of IP cores
The IP core serves for chip design the same purpose a library serves for computer programming or a discrete
integrated circuit component does for printed circuit board design. In each case, it is a reusable component of design
logic with a defined interface and behavior that has been verified by its vendor and is integrated into a larger software
or hardware design.

Soft cores
IP cores are typically offered as synthesizable RTL. Synthesizable cores are delivered in a hardware description
language such as Verilog or VHSIC hardware description language (VHDL). These are analogous to low level languages
such as C in the field of computer programming. IP cores delivered to chip designers as RTL permit chip designers to

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modify designs at the functional level, though many IP vendors offer no warranty or support for modified designs.

IP cores are also sometimes offered as generic gate-level netlists. The netlist is a boolean-algebra representation of the
IP's logical function implemented as generic gates or process specific standard cells. An IP core implemented as
generic gates is portable to any process technology. A gate-level netlist is analogous to an assembly code listing in the
field of computer programming. A netlist gives the IP core vendor reasonable protection against reverse engineering.
See also: integrated circuit layout design protection.

Both netlist and synthesizable cores are called "soft cores", as both allow a synthesis, placement and routing (SPR)
design flow.

Hard cores
Hard cores are defined as IP cores that cannot be modified and are thus "hard", analogous to the etymology of
hardware and software.[nb 1] By the nature of their low-level representation, hard cores offer better predictability of
chip performance in terms of timing performance and area.

Analog and mixed-signal logic are generally defined as a lower-level, physical description. Hence, analog IP (SerDes,
PLLs, DAC, ADC, PHYs, etc.) are provided to chip makers in transistor-layout format (such as GDSII). Digital IP cores
are sometimes offered in layout format, as well.

Such cores, whether analog or digital, are called "hard cores" (or hard macros), because the core's application function
cannot be meaningfully modified by chip designers. Transistor layouts must obey the target foundry's process design
rules, and hence, hard cores delivered for one foundry's process cannot be easily ported to a different process or
foundry. Merchant foundry operators (such as IBM, Fujitsu, Samsung, TI, etc.) offer a variety of hard-macro IP
functions built for their own foundry process, helping to ensure customer lock-in.

Note

1. Hardware is "hard" because it cannot be reprogrammed, modified or updated to patch bugs or add features.
Software is "soft" because its design is less rigid and more amenable to modifications and updates.

Sources of IP cores

Licensed functionality
Many of the best known IP cores are soft microprocessor designs. Their instruction sets vary from small 8-bit
processors, such as the 8051 and PIC to 32-bit and 64-bit processors such as the ARM architectures or MIPS
architectures. Such processors form the "brains" of many embedded systems. They are usually RISC instruction sets
rather than CISC instruction sets like x86 because less logic is required and therefore designs are smaller. Further, x86
leaders Intel and AMD heavily protect their processor designs' intellectual property and don't use this business model
for their x86-64 lines of microprocessors.

IP cores are also licensed for a variety of peripheral controllers such as for PCI Express, SDRAM, Ethernet, LCD
display, AC'97 audio, and USB. Many of those interfaces require digital logic as well as analog IP cores to drive and
receive high speed, high voltage, or high impedance signals outside of the chip.

"Hardwired" (as opposed to software programmable soft microprocessors described above) digital logic IP cores are
also licensed for fixed functions such as MP3 audio decode, 3D GPU, digital video encode/decode, and other DSP
functions such as FFT, DCT, or Viterbi coding.

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Vendors
IP core developers and licensors range in size from individuals to multibillion-dollar corporations. Developers, as well
as their chip making customers are located throughout the world.

Silicon Intellectual Property (SIP, Silicon IP) is a business model for a semiconductor company where the company
licenses its technology to a customer as intellectual property. This is a type of fabless semiconductor company which
doesn't provide physical chips to its customers but merely facilitates the customer's development of chips by offering
certain functional blocks. Typically, the customers are semiconductor companies or module developers with in-house
semiconductor development. A company wishing to fabricate a complex device may purchase the rights to use another
company's well-tested functional blocks such as a microprocessor, instead of developing their own design which would
take additional time and cost.

The Silicon IP industry is fairly new but with stable growth. The most successful Silicon IP companies, often referred to
as the Star IP, include ARC International, ARM Holdings, Rambus and MIPS Technologies. Gartner Group estimated
the total value of sales related to silicon intellectual property at US $1.5 billion in 2005, with annual growth expected
around 30%.[2]

IP hardening
IP hardening is a process to re-use proven design, 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 DSP processor is developed from soft cores of RTL (Register-transfer level) 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. 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 or verifications.

The effort input to harden the soft IP means quality of the target technology, goals of design and the methodology
employed. 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.[3][4]

Free and open-source

OpenCores.org offers a wide variety of designs, mostly written in VHDL and Verilog. All of these cores are provided
under some free and open-source software-license, e.g. GNU General Public License or BSD-like licenses.[5]

Aggregators
Intellectual property aggregators keep catalogs of cores from multiple vendors and provide search and marketing
services to their customers.

Design and Reuse[6]

ChipEstimate[7]
ChipPath[8]

See also
List of semiconductor IP core vendors
Semiconductor
Semiconductor fabrication plant (foundry)
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Mask work
Fabless manufacturing
Integrated circuit layout design protection

References
1. Clark, Peter (April 23, 2014). "Cadence breaks into top four in semi IP core ranking" (http://www.analog-eetimes.c
om/en/cadence-breaks-into-top-four-in-semi-ip-core-ranking.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=222906319&vID=35). EE
Times Europe (N/A). Peter Clark. European Business Press SA. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
2. Kiat Seng Yeo, Kim Tean Ng, Zhi Hui Kong Intellectual Property for Integrated Circuits , J. Ross Publishing, 2010
ISBN 1-932159-85-1
3. http://www.eettaiwan.com/ART_8800406094_480102_AN_71148c3a.HTM IP hardening by eetTaiwan Dead link
2011 06 30
4. http://ic.hkstp.org/ip_mpw_ip.html More about IP hardening. An organization (which is set up by government)
provides services of IP hardening and IP integration. In Chinese.
5. OpenCores licenses (http://www.opencores.org/faq.cgi/section/4/4.1#4.1)
6. Design and Reuse (http://www.design-reuse.com/)
7. ChipEstimate (http://www.chipestimate.com)
8. Free ChipPath IP directory (https://search.chippath.com/) Archived (https://archive.is/20140717161217/https://sear
ch.chippath.com/) 2014-07-17 at Archive.today

External links
Open cores (http://www.opencores.org/) "design and publish core" (under LGPL Licence)
Altera cores (https://www.altera.com/products/intellectual-property/ip.html) Free reference IP cores for FPGAs
Open Source Semiconductor Core Licensing, 25 Harvard Journal of Law & Technology 131 (2011) (http://jolt.law.h
arvard.edu/articles/pdf/v25/25HarvJLTech131.pdf) Article analyzing the law, technology and business of open
source semiconductor cores

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