What is Intellectual Property (IP)

 It is the logic blocks or circuit layout design which are reusable and describes the implementation of the functionality of hardware within FPGA or ASIC.

- IP's are not a physical chips (it is basically a piece of logic which performs the functions of a piece of that hardware over the board).

- It is the building blocks of ASIC or FPGA.

- It is the intellectual property of one party and can be licensed to another party.

Example: Arm based CPU, MALI GPU, USB, I2C, DMA, SPI controller, UART, Multiplexer, Ethernet controller, PCI interface, Power modules, Memory controller, Audio drivers, Video controller, Analog IP such as- ADC, DAC, PLL, etc.

Thus, an IP can be analog, digital or mixed signal.

IP's are available in 3 form- Soft core, hard core and firm core.

1. Soft Core IP : - It is delivered as synthesizable logic written in Verilog or HDL or available netlist (a list of logic gates and their interconnection).

- It is not optimized for the target architecture. So it provides low performance and less efficient in terms of resource utilization but provides more flexibility than others. By having the source code, here the user does synthesis and physical implementation which can change the design at functional level (best vendor's won't support at this level).

Ex: Arm core, DRAM controller IP, some bus controller IP, ethernet controller IP.

2. Firm IP Core : - Delivered as HDL implementation level (as netlist) but optimized one. It is targeted for specific architecture and device.

- It is optimized for FPGA CALTERA NIOS II, Xilinx micro blaze processor.

- They are not a physical one but they are just virtual IP based on the rtl with better optimization.

3. Hard Core IP : - Provided to user in gate level or transistor level physical description. So it can be directly included at physical design stage. (GDS II data is used in FAB)

- It does not reveal the source code.

- Generally an analog, digital and mixed signal logic are hard core and are provided to chip makers in transistor layout formats like GDSII.

Note: A transistor layout provided by the IP vendors actually which are designed with a specific foundries process (technology nodes- 28nm, 32nm, ----) (by TSMC).

Thus, the users will be forced to the process even different one is more suitable for rest of chip.

- It provides highest performance on fully optimized in terms of area, power, speed, etc.

- But it has less flexibility among all types of IP (reduced risk). [since it is optimized one with predesigned, pre-characteristics from the following foundries.]

Ex: Arm core, Xilinx Virtex-II, Pro FPGA, Virtex-4, power pc core, USB interface, HDMI interface, DDR interface, Analog IP like DAC, ADC, PLL, DLL.

IP Buisness

IP are designed and targeted for mobile, networking, security, automobile, IOT applications, etc.

IP vendors either sell ip core (that are soft, hard, firm or architecture (arm)). Even the cpu core is also available.

2 ways licensing of IP : -

1) Licensing IP - Fully designed and pre-verified RTL code of a logic is provided according to customer specifications.

- This is then modified as per requirements and optimized layout is designed and then send to the layout for FAB.

- They provide RTL level design of processor also. (This IP tells how logic gates are wired together to produce a processor. It is provided by ARM)

Ex: Samsung uses arm cortex series CPU. Arm will provide IP license to use its CPU or GPU and Samsung can't change the design but can optimize for better power, frequency, output.

(apple and samsung do their own physical implementation)

Ex: ARM also provides the optimized processor design (i.e. gate netlist description)  which offers 28nm at TSMC for cortex A12 that customer can directly manufacture at a foundry (this is brought when customers have no facility for optimization or no extra budget).

Note: 1. The CPU -IP provided by cortex- A7, A5, A32, M3, M4, M33, etc.

2. GPU -IP provided by ARM MALI, QUALCOMM

3. Interconnect - IP like AXI, AHB, CCI are also available.

Peripherals controllers like UART, I2C, SPI, RTC and RS232.

Analog IP like ADC, DAC, PLL, DLL.

Many IP vendors are available globally. They sell IP and make money; the vendors are like NVIDIA, IBM, Apple, Texas Instrumentation, Samsung, Broadcom, etc.

2) Architectural License - Customer receives the right to design their hardware implementation based on a set of specification (ARM provides license to use arm own processor architecture. So, others can use it in thier products along with other components such as memory, interface, radio)

Note: Architecture means:- Any architecture is defined by an instruction set (HDL language) and operand location (registers and memory). Operands may come from registers or memory or instructions itself and it affects speed and data capacity. So to understand any architecture-

    1. learn its language (instruction such as add, subtraction, jump, divide, etc)

    2. know what are the registers

    3. how is memory organized

Ex: MIPS is 32 bits arch as it operates on 32-bit data and has 32 general purpose registers for different purposes. MIPS has a byte-addressable memory 32-bit long.

-    Architecture defines what the instruction does and how the registers and memory are accessed. for data reading and writing. But not when they are executed or when they are implemented (implementation is done by the customer as per their requirements).

-    Architecture doesn't define the underlying hardware implementation. A single architecture can have many hardware implementations but they all run the same program. So, same program but different hardware so tradeoffs will be there in performance, price and power.

Note: Arm can use its own architecture and build the IP core for the processor and gives the license (soft or hard IP). Ex: Cortex CPU, Mali GPU, and many more.

• Arm is an architecture i.e. RISC (CISC used in x86 - intel) and the company design core that implements ARM architecture is Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Samsung, etc.

-    The license buyers can be fabless or own fabs (Ex: Intel build its own architecture [x86], design them into chip for various market and manufacture the design at its own foundaries. Intel doesn't give their architectural license to any.)

Ex: Apple a9 soc was 64-bit arm architecture and build its core at TSMC, Samsung.

-    Arm doesn't design or sell processors. They sell IP for the processor.

Snapdragon is a SOC and not a processor. Qualcomm sells where many components are integrated such as GPU, DSP, modem, etc.

Note: Snapdragon is used by Samsung.

Licensing amount depends on the complexity of IP, cost of development, target application and expected volumes. Once the product uses the IP, start shipping to IP vendors and also get royalties.

-    Every chip that has arm IP generates the royalties per chip.

-    Arm, Intel, and Nvidia make money selling the chip or giving licenses to someone. Then customers build a chip and sell it and earn money.