Semiconductor IP News and Trends Blog

Rapid Semiconductor IP Growth Drives Management Awareness

Managing valuable intellectual property (IP) resources requires overcoming design challenges, capturing IP assets and platforms that optimize reuse.

By John Blyler, Editorial Director, Semi-IP Systems

As reported in the past, the sale of semiconductor intellectual property (IP) is beginning to outpace that of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) chip design tools. According to a Electronic System Design Alliance MSS report, semi IP sales exceeded those of EDA tools for the first time back in Q3 2015.

With an increase in sales of IP comes a corresponding need for management of that resource (see, “IP Management Crucial to Semiconductor Industry”). This is why I’m pleased to see the release of Dassault Systemes’s whitepaper series on enterprise semiconductor IP management.  Here are the highlights:

• Reach the full potential of IP-driven design — Reaping the full benefit of IP reuse requires overcoming two primary IP management challenges: scaling and sharing. Read this white paper to discover how specially-designed tools and platforms can be used in early phase of engineering to:

• • Address scaling by shifting from file-based workflows to enterprise IP solutions that accelerate design workflows.
  • Meet sharing challenges by leveraging solutions that enable collaboration across all phases of IP management.
  • 70% savings in product design time with content reuse, as shown in current studies.
• Capture More Value from IP Assets — This white paper explores mid-phase semiconductor IP management issues such as security, sourcing, licensing and royalties.
  • Why security concerns are growing, and why the use of hard and soft IP security tags has a mixed record of success.
  • Why sourcing merits its own dedicated management effort apart from IP cataloging or governance operations.
  • What companies can do to realize the hidden value of large untapped stores of unlicensed IP.
• Platform-Based Design for Agility & Optimal IP Reuse — How can firms quickly create SoCs in response to consumer preferences without ‘redesigning the wheel’ each time? This white paper explores how companies can meet this challenge by:

• • Deploying a platform-based environment to provide the IP governance infrastructure needed to help designers reuse IP.
  • Using functional virtual prototypes (FVPs) to bridge the gap between EDA tool-based RTL design and SoC implementation.
  • Employing system virtual prototype (SVP) to incorporate SoC hardware and software in unified IP management processes.

(Courtesy of Dassault Systemes)

Semiconductor IP is a market differentiator for most System-on-Chip (SOC) and embedded vendors. Managing the IP resource carefully, across below- and above-the-line product workflows, is essential to ensuring a competitive advantage.