VCore-based platform for SoC design

The reuse-based design paradigm is the key to improve the design productivity of SoCs (system on a chip). However, SoC designers have difficulty in using conventional IPs (intellectual property) because they do not have enough variability; it is difficult to customize them. In this paper, we propose the variability of VCores (virtual cores) and show VCores are superior to IPs for system-level design properties. Based on VCores, we have developed a VCore-based platform. We show that SoC design productivity is improved by using VCores and the VCore-based platform.