Analogue IP procurement for fast tape-out of chip designs

摘要

The semiconductor industry's phrase "new design project" carries a rich set of connotations. It is commonly used to describe a development activity from the very beginning, rather than a re-design, cost-reduction tweak or any other modification of an existing design. The reality, however, is that no new chip design ever starts with a completely blank canvas. Every ASIC or system-on-chip (SoC) design is a process of assembling and connecting building blocks and circuit elements that already exist in the form of IP developed and re-used in-house or from a third party, before any notionally 'new' design project begins. Still, a small portion of the circuit will consist of new circuit elements, which typically is the part that takes up most of the engineers' time and effort to differentiate the design.