How Aggregators Help ASIC Design Teams Differentiate Their Products

Selecting and integrating IP is rapidly becoming the biggest challenge of the ASIC industry. The success of an ASIC depends on the careful selection of reliable IP. However, selecting the correct IP involves lengthy procurement time, along with legal and business negotiations, in addition to significant technical qualifications. This is where an IP aggregator can lessen the pain of qualifying and integrating IP for an ASIC vendor.

Not long ago, chip designers developed their products using a limited selection of 3rd party IP-available for specific process nodes and applications. Those days are gone. Now, there are more than 1,600 independent providers offering a wide variety of IP optimized for low-power, high-density, and high-performance use. I refer to this new IP business model as Open-IP.