3 Challenges Of Delivering Configurable Semiconductor IP
Commercially useful IP is orders of magnitude more difficult to create than fixed-configuration IP.
Over time, commercial IP products have morphed from single function blocks to 100% configurable IPs where no two instances are the same. In this article I point out the challenges of creating configurable IP, and the best-known practices to address them.
IP Configurability Spectrum
Throughout the history of chip design, there has been a spectrum of configurability that has been built into internally developed and commercial semiconductor design IP. In the early days of chip design, sections of chip designs (i.e. IP blocks) were mostly fixed-function and therefore were not configurable. We still see this today, with standards-based IP, where there is a very limited set of functionality that is configurable, or even no configurability at all.
Related Semiconductor IP
- DSP-Based 112G SerDes
- XTAL oscillator in TSMC-7nm
- GPU
- V-by-One Verification IP
- AI model compression IP
Related Blogs
- The Blind Spot of Semiconductor IP Sales
- MIPI CSI3 Verification - Top 3 Challenges
- JEDEC UFS Verification - Top 3 Challenges
- 3 Reasons That the Semiconductor Clouds Are Gathering
Latest Blogs
- World's First Standards-Compliant 112G PHY IP for Linear Optics: A Turning Point for AI Interconnects
- One Key for Every Door: How Aliro Extends the UWB Digital Key Beyond the Car
- Reprogrammable Post-Quantum Security for SoCs: Why Crypto-Agility Matters
- Designing the Beam Steering Core for a C-Band AESA: A Look at VSI's VBF0644 GaAs Beamformer IC
- Secure Boot for embedded systems: Building a complete chain of trust