Application-specific Integrated Circuit - Cell Libraries, IP-based Design, Hard and Soft Macros

Cell Libraries, IP-based Design, Hard and Soft Macros

Cell libraries of logical primitives are usually provided by the device manufacturer as part of the service. Although they will incur no additional cost, their release will be covered by the terms of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and they will be regarded as intellectual property by the manufacturer. Usually their physical design will be pre-defined so they could be termed "hard macros".

What most engineers understand as "intellectual property" are IP cores, designs purchased from a third-party as sub-components of a larger ASIC. They may be provided as an HDL description (often termed a "soft macro"), or as a fully routed design that could be printed directly onto an ASIC's mask (often termed a hard macro). Many organizations now sell such pre-designed cores — CPUs, Ethernet, USB or telephone interfaces — and larger organizations may have an entire department or division to produce cores for the rest of the organization. Indeed, the wide range of functions now available is a significant factor in the phenomenal increase in electronics in the late 1990s and early 2000s; as a core takes a lot of time and investment to create, its re-use and further development cuts product cycle times dramatically and creates better products. Additionally, organizations such as OpenCores are collecting free IP cores paralleling the open source movement in software.

Soft macros are often process-independent, i.e., they can be fabricated on a wide range of manufacturing processes and different manufacturers. Hard macros are process-limited and usually further design effort must be invested to migrate (port) to a different process or manufacturer.