IP encryption brings trust, panelists say

— An intellectual property (IP) encryption proposal offered by Synplicity Inc. will help restore "trust" between providers and consumers, according to panelists at the Design Automation Conference here Tuesday morning. But there are tradeoffs with respect to visibility into the IP, panelists acknowledged.

Synplicity announced an open IP encryption standard June 19 and offered it to the industry. The methodology uses openly available, government-approved encryption methods combined with an encryption embedding mechanism proposed by Cadence Design Systems Inc. and included with the current Verilog 2005 release.

The approach "allows us to quickly build trust" with new customers, said Mark Brass, director of IP licensing at ARM. "There is a clear value in allowing the use of IP through an encrypted flow," he said.

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