IP (Intellectual Property) is often referred to as intellectual property. The American Dataquest consulting company defines IP in the semiconductor industry as being used in ASIC, ASSP, PLD, etc., and is a pre-designed circuit function module. IP, fixed IP and hard IP.
Soft IP describes the behavior of functional blocks in the form of computer high-level language, but does not involve what circuits and circuit components are used to implement these behaviors. The final product of soft IP is basically the same as ordinary application software, and the development process is also very similar to application software. It is just that the required development software and hardware environment, especially the tool software, are much more expensive. The design cycle of soft IP is short and the design investment is low. Since it does not involve physical implementation, it leaves a lot of room for subsequent design, increasing the flexibility and adaptability of the IP. Of course, an inevitable weakness of soft IP is that there will be a certain proportion of subsequent processes that cannot adapt to the soft IP design, resulting in a certain degree of soft IP correction.
Fixed IP is a comprehensive functional block with greater design depth, which is submitted to customers in the form of a netlist. If the customer and the fixed IP use the unit library of the same production line, the success rate of the IP will be higher.
Hard IP provides the final stage product of the design: the mask. As design depth increases, there is less work to be done in subsequent processes and, of course, less flexibility. Different customers can order different IP products according to their own needs