IP Re-Use: The Key Challenge in SOC (System- on-Chip) Product Development D Y Yang Chairman, Taiwan SoC Consortium Jan. 14, 2003

Topics Progress in Semiconductor Technology Driving Forces for SOC SOC Design Methodology The Difficulties in IP Re-Use –The Definition and Nature of IP –The Re-Usability of IP –The Non Technical Issues IP as a Business Some Industrial Effort for IP Re-Use Is a Global IP Exchange a possibility ?

The Progress in Semiconductor Industry The Moore’ Law The Gain in Circuit Density (Size), Performance (Speed) and Power Consumption at the same time –Difficulties in modeling the complicated Very Deep Submicron Device (VDSD) Interconnection delay, leakage, etc. –Difficulties in handling the circuit complexity –Difficult in Testing –High Cost of Mask Tooling  Design Gap: Technology productivity vs. design productivity

The Driving Forces for SOC SOC is: Complete System Products on a single chip or chip set –Incorporates one processor, or/and co-processor, on-chip bus, on- chip memories, interfaces to peripheral devices, or/and other interfaces to real world Driven by The Semiconductor Technology Driven by The Market Demands –Time to Market, Application Specific while keeping cost down Helped by The emerging key IPs and on-chip buses Helped by The new EDA tools

The SOC Design Methodology The productivity issue in SOC design –The Design Gap The Known Good Practices ( to handle complexity) to increase design productivity –Hierarchical IP-Based (Divide and Conquer) SOC, Module, Macro, IP Block, Sub-Block –Abstraction of Design (Models) Specification, Behavior, RTL, Netlist, GDSII –Platform-Based Application-Specific Platform

The Need and the Trend for IP-Reuse Cut down the design turn-around time and time-to-market by not designing from scratch. Reduce redundancy in internal design effort. Get the best IPs from outside suppliers

The Difficulties in IP Re-Use The Definition and Nature of IPs The Re-Usability of IPs The Non-Technical Issues

The Definition and Nature of IP The Definition of (Silicon) IP and Deliverables: –Intellectual Property; Virtual Component –Synthesizable RTL codes –Verification IP (also RTL codes) –Synthesis Scripts –Documentation and Support The Nature of IP –It is a collection of digital data and files –It is digital information product and has no physical form.  It is a component of a system  It is not a finished products  Hard to protect; Hard to present; Hard to evaluate before buy.  Need to disclose much information for Integrators( Users) Protection and Evaluation are important and difficult issues

The Re-Usability of IP Design for Use: –Correct and Robust Design for Re-Use ( by others) : –Easy to integrate into wide range of current and future SOC design by many other SOC integrators Implementation IP and Verification IP Documentation and Packaging How Re-Usable is Re-Usable? –The abstraction level: Soft IP, Firm IP and Hard IP –AMS design is difficult to migrate quickly to new technology as digital IP The SOC Integration for Time-to-Market or for Performance or for Cost

The Non-Technical Issues in IP Re-Use Legacy design –Harvest or Discard New design-for-reuse infrastructure –Tools, Methodology and Management Re-train and re-organize –IP team and Integration team Incentive for engineers to overcome their reluctances to do extra work to design for re-use IP repository and process of finding IP within the company Business process to source and to manage third party IPs

IP as a Business Companies do need to source IPs from outside suppliers IP business had high growth rate of 25% in 2001 and had a revenue 0f about $900 million dollars while the entire industry shrunk by 31%. –However, very few IP suppliers made money in 2001 –The major revenue came from Licensing, Royalty and Service The major categories for IP business are –CPU: ARM, MIPS –Bus Interface: RAMBUS, USB, etc The major application domains are: –Communication –Consumer –Computer IP Market by region: –America –Japan –Europe –Asian and Pacific

IP as a Business? The IP business is in high growth but still in immaturity The cost of IP transaction is too high for both sides—not a “off-the-shelf” business yet –Locate a suitable IP –Evaluation the IP –Trading mechanism and legal contracting –Service and support Many IP vendors move toward becoming “Solution” Providers or “ Platform” Providers

Some Industrial Effort in IP re-use VCX ( Virtual Component Exchange) –To standardize the trading mechanism and legal contracting VSIA( Virtual Socket Interface Alliance) –Tool Interfaces; Design Re-Use and Documentation Practices –IP protection and many other specification and standards. OpenMORE –Self Assessment on IP Re-Use based on RMM( Reuse Methodology Manual) –IP interface standard and documentation practices STARC( Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Company) in Japan –IP standard and IP Scoring; IP coding style ITRI( Industrial Technology Research Institute) in Taiwan –IP Catalog Sharing Standard and IP Rating standard SOC Consortium in Taiwan –Promote IP Re-Use and SOC Design Technology

IP Re-Use and SOC Effort in Taiwan Private Companies: –Taiwan SOC Consortium Promotion and Exchange of Information on IP Re-Use and SOC design methodologies International Cooperation Cordination Government: –STC( SOC Technology Center) /ITRI SOC Design, IP Standards and IP cataloging –Si-Soft Program (Silicon Island Project, Government R/D Projects) Design Methodology SOC platforms and Vehicle IP Mall Universities: –SOC Technology Teaching and Research Programs

Is a Global IP Exchange a Possibility? An independent intermediary organization to facilitate the IP registration, IP transaction by providing necessary legal contracting, IP protection, trading matching, settlement and service for IP providers and SOC Integrators Business Environment: –Oligopoly in Foundry and Photo Mask Services: easy to control the physical output of the Exchange –The emergence of independent design service providers and independent design platform providers: provide the necessary technical services –The available of global broad band infrastructure and Data Center: easy to access the trading information while provide the necessary protection The Issues: –The participation of key players in the semiconductor supply chain –The cost and volume of transactions –The standard IP licensing model –Many other issues yet to be found out

Summary At this moment, IP-Reuse is key practice for making SOC product development possible In reality, there are still many issues to be overcome to make IP-Reuse a common practice –Intra-company IP re-use –Inter-company IP trade –Global IP exchange Active industry effort will help to accelerate the change and migration A Global IP Exchange could be an interest idea for industry to think over

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