IP Tools: Do any exist to help us?
Bill Martin, Mentor Graphics
If you would have asked me a year ago, few tools or companies were focused on IP quality, reuse and integration. Many managers and engineers complain in the press and at various conferences that problems do exist. If you worked in the IP arena (for example, a supplier or consumer), you had first-hand knowledge of quality and integration issues. There are existing tools from Mentor Graphics (HDL Designer Series), Synopsys (CoreBuilder?), Cadence (ChipEstimate) and Design & Reuse (IP Reuse Station).
In the last six to nine months, I have seen more ‘point’ tools in the press that attack specific issues related to IP. These are not ‘Ron Popeil/Veg-O-Matic-like’ tools (that “does everything to the low cost of $19.95 with lots of extras given away for free”), but at least some point tools are being developed. You might explore the following companies for additional point tool solutions:
Atrenta http://www.atrenta.com/
Fenix Design Automation http://www.fenix-da.com/
NXP/IP Extreme QCore http://www.ip-extreme.com/
Satin IP http://www.satin-ip.com/
I am sure that other companies exist or will be started. Clever people are listening to the IP issues and they are determining how to provide a solution that creates value for all concerned.
If your company has other IP-related tools, please post your company’s name and product below. I am sure many potential customers would like to see what is available.
If you would have asked me a year ago, few tools or companies were focused on IP quality, reuse and integration. Many managers and engineers complain in the press and at various conferences that problems do exist. If you worked in the IP arena (for example, a supplier or consumer), you had first-hand knowledge of quality and integration issues. There are existing tools from Mentor Graphics (HDL Designer Series), Synopsys (CoreBuilder?), Cadence (ChipEstimate) and Design & Reuse (IP Reuse Station).
In the last six to nine months, I have seen more ‘point’ tools in the press that attack specific issues related to IP. These are not ‘Ron Popeil/Veg-O-Matic-like’ tools (that “does everything to the low cost of $19.95 with lots of extras given away for free”), but at least some point tools are being developed. You might explore the following companies for additional point tool solutions:
Atrenta http://www.atrenta.com/
Fenix Design Automation http://www.fenix-da.com/
NXP/IP Extreme QCore http://www.ip-extreme.com/
Satin IP http://www.satin-ip.com/
I am sure that other companies exist or will be started. Clever people are listening to the IP issues and they are determining how to provide a solution that creates value for all concerned.
If your company has other IP-related tools, please post your company’s name and product below. I am sure many potential customers would like to see what is available.
Labels: Intellectual Property, IP, SIP
posted by Bill Martin at
12:27 PM
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2 Comments:
If a point tool is a tool that focuses on one challenge and solves it well, I agree with you Bill. But the challenge that Satin IP addresses with VIP Lane is more than a “point” challenge. We call it “IP Quality Closure” and it is about defining, deploying and monitoring design-for-reuse practices corporate-wide. As far as I can see, this is a major concern for the entire design community. A point tool, not a point challenge, this my point!
Whether you call them point tools or whatever, the industry needs to focus on tools to help project managers make the right calls. These are the guys on the hook to management for the success or failure of a design. Enterprise wide tools are great in that much knowledge needs to be shared, but most of the time they bring bureaucracy without accountability. Dictating IP choices to project managers without releasing them from responsibility for that choice never works. More than once I have been told by managers that they will listen to some centralized function when that function takes on a piece of the success/failure responsibility. Most of these programs have failed in the past, but I won't name names.
Tools focused higher or lower than the PM won't have much impact.
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