RTL design source management for system-on-a-chip designs

Increasingly, system-on-a-chip (SOC) designers are looking to leverage the expertise of design service providers to bring products to market. Design service providers may be engaged at various points in the design process: from design conception and specification to processing a completed technology dependent netlist. Engagement typically occurs at a stage intermediate to these points; completed RTL for some portion of the design may exist but assistance is needed to integrate the RTL with other core IF, or design services may be enlisted to develop some portion of the RTL or new cores to perform specific functions. Proper management of RTL design source is critical to the overall success of a project. This paper describes a methodology used by a design service provider to address this issue.