Front-end IP development: Basic know-how

IP reuse is a part of the solution to the well known design-gap problem. It aims at closing the gap between what semiconductor-technology is offering in terms of integration capacity, and what is practically possible to implement in silicon with current design methodologies and tools. This paper summarizes in bullet-point-style the most important issues related to front-end IP-development and introduces a detailed technical documentation template for small to medium size IPs as well as a number of recommendations for hardware/software verification of the IP. The purpose of this paper is to provide students and engineers with basic know-how to develop high-quality and qualified IPs for modern SoC applications. This includes all necessary steps from requirements specification till the validation of the IP core. A special emphasis is devoted to documentation and verification as they are the most time-consuming phases in IP-projects.