Intellectual Property Cores: Protection designs for CE products

The current design era of consumer electronics (CE) is reliant on global integrated circuit (IC) supply chains. To maximize design productivity and minimize design time, the use of intellectual property (IP) cores, often supplied by a third-party vendor, has become a standard practice in the industry. However, there are increasing threats to security and growing piracy issues that threaten global supply chains as system-on-chip (SoC) design becomes increasingly commoditized. As a consequence, the requirements for protecting IP-core designs and the know-how they represent have become of importance to industry. This article provides an insight into this task faced by many CE manufacturers and an overview of current and past methodologies. The pros and cons of each approach and some practical case studies will help the reader understand this challenge. Some consideration is also given to the potential future evolution of IP protection.