Intellitech Granted US Patent for Pay-per-Instance IP core Licensing

Paves way for time-of-use licensing for IP cores and Silicon Instruments

Dover, NH - (December 18, 2015) - Intellitech® Corporation, the technology leader in solutions for IEEE 1149.1-2013 Silicon Instrument development, has announced it has been granted US patent 9,152,749 entitled "Management system, method and apparatus for licensed delivery and accounting of electronic circuits". Filed in 2002, the patent claims cited are fundamental to enabling secure activation of SoC and FPGA based IP cores at the time of use in silicon rather than at the time of design. Using Intellitech's technology, IP cores can be enabled within silicon at the time of SoC test, during SoC deployment or in-the-field by the IP customer. The method also works with FPGAs such that IP cores can be distributed, integrated in an FPGA design and enabled by the end user on a per unit basis.

The capability enables a more cost effective licensing model for both the IP provider and the IP user. The new method removes the risk of the upfront large flat license fee for IP users at the time of design. Through Intellitech's technology, the IP user can incrementally pay for the IP as their needs scale. If a project doesn’t move forward to production or a feature provided by an IP core is not needed for a given industry segment, the IP remains disabled and the IP user pays only for what is enabled. Likewise, IP providers can scale their revenue based on the usefulness and success of their IP cores as used by their customer. The engagement effort required for the IP provider to gain a design win is significantly reduced since a flat fee is not negotiated during the design phase.

"There are many instances where it makes sense to design in an IP core which may not get used across the entire product line," said CJ Clark, CEO of Intellitech. "Consider IP used for silicon debug which may only be used during early silicon validation or IP which meets a standard specific to an industry or geographical part of the world," he continued. "In those instances it makes sense to pay-per-instance or pay at time-of-use for the IP core rather than paying for the IP core value across an entire product line when the entire product line doesn’t reap the benefit of the IP," Clark concluded.

About Intellitech Corporation

Intellitech is the technology leader in solutions based on IEEE 1149.x related standards. The company is sought out by customers to provide methodologies, IP and tools which lower a customer's cost in developing or manufacturing an electronic product. Intellitech is a registered trademark of Intellitech Corp. in the U.S., E.U. and other countries. Silicon Instruments is a trademark of Intellitech Corp. Information about Intellitech can be found at http://www.intellitech.com.