Standard eases IP tracking for royalty calculations

A tagging format, recorded in the standard GDSII-Stream file, provides complete virtual-component identification information and thus ensures a complete accounting and reporting of the intellectual property used. The VCID standard defines several criteria to ensure an accurate tagging process: required information, or standard definitions for the minimum information needed to ensure complete reporting; an encoding mechanism, which allows for arbitrary keywords and values; and a reporting mechanism, which allows a report for every virtual component on the chip to be produced from the required fields.

VCID is said to specify the coding of information necessary to track ownership of virtual components in any design. It also allows virtual-component users to label the components so foundries can run software that will identify such information as the virtual component's name, company and usage details. The document also defines operational programs to both write and read the information. The standard can tag all of the virtual components used in a single-chip design.

The VCID Standard (IPP 1 1.0) can be accessed and downloaded by VSIA members from www.vsia.org. Nonmember licenses are also available.