Industry Expert Blogs

IP planning can seem at times to be like a roll of the dice because there are so many evolving standards. Your IP selection is so dependent on market trends and can make or break your system design, but you really won't know for another 12, 24 months, or even longer.

And what happens in between design commitment and tape out?

Consumer tastes may alter your requirements or an influential systems player may choose a particular path that disrupts the established protocols or influences design directions in the competitive landscape.

And you can't ignore the impact of the evolving process nodes and their effect on IP development and deployment time tables.

Such is the case around DDR4, the long-anticipated memory technology that is beginning to ramp now for enterprise computing applications and make its way into desktops and laptops.

But there is much to think about where DDR4 IP belongs on your product roadmap. A deep understanding of the end market and specific applications are needed, in additional to grasping the price crossover point between DDR3 and DDR4 memories (see comparison chart below), according to Thomas Wong, Director of Strategic Business with Cadence's IP Group.

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