How to Choose an Intellectual Property Core
by Jayden Smith BloggerChoosing an intellectual
property (IP) core is of utmost importance as it can affect the overall
performance and quality of the product. It also plays a major role in the
profitability and product launch time aspects of the company. There are many
challenges when choosing a core and IP
development company for your business needs. An SoC (System on a chip)
designer needs to determine which core is best suited for a specific SoC.
There are different types of
core available in the market, and it is important to seek the advice of an IP development company as to which core
is best suited in the particular situation. You need to choose the core
depending on various factors such as the type of core (hard core or soft core),
the quality of deliverables, and also the reliability of the IP development company.
Types of Cores
The advantage of an IP core is
that you are able to create large System-on-a-Chip (SoC) designs in a small
amount of time by integrating pre-made blocks that are already designed and
verified. Although this saves time, it presents some challenges.
IP cores can be delivered to
customers either in soft core or hard core. A soft core IP development design is a synthesizable core whereas hard core is
fully implemented and ready for manufacturing. In the case of a soft core, the
customer needs to synthesize the core and then implement it in its SoC. On the
other hand, in the case of hard core IP
development, the customer just needs to drop the hard core into the chip as
a single monolithic piece.
The Benefits of
Soft Core
Soft cores are much more
flexible in function because they are not implemented. If the performance
target is within the range of a soft core, then it can suit your needs
perfectly. The SoC team of the IP
development company can meet its performance goals with a soft core because
of its inherent flexibility. As the process technology improves, so will the
maximum limits of frequency of the soft core.
Hard core IP development on the other hand, can be used in many different SoC
designs because the developers can spend time in optimizing their
implementations. Although, in most cases, hard cores do offer higher
performance, it does not offer the flexibility as that of soft core IP development.
In case you require
performance that goes beyond the limits of current process and design
technology, it would be wiser to choose a hard core IP development for your SoC design.
Another major advantage of
soft core IP development is that it
is technology independent. This means that it does not require a specific
process technology or standard cell library. The same IP core can be
implemented in different SoC designs, and also for future improvements or
upgrades of the current design. On the other hand, hard core IP is very
specific and can be implemented only for a specific purpose.
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Created on Oct 4th 2018 07:26. Viewed 554 times.