Foundries and the dawn of an open IP era

Independent intellectual property (IP) providers began emerging in the late 1990s. The growing complexity of SOC (system-on-a-chip) technology dramatically increases design loading and creates the need for verified third-party cores to simplify multifunctional chip designs. Chip foundry companies play a key role in providing the IP hard cores and expediting design migration to smaller geometries in silicon-verified IP cores. As a result, foundries stand at the focal point of an impending open IP era that will facilitate the virtual re-integration of such value-adding activities as system design, IC design, third-party IP and electronic design automation (EDA). By serving as a virtual re-integrator, chip foundries will reverse the fragmentation of the IC industry and form the keystone in an efficient value-creation network.