
Our favorite links for this topic area. Enjoy, fellow researchers! Questions, comments, new links? Email eewindow@aol.com!. In electronic design a semiconductor intellectual property core, IP block, IP core, or logic core is a reusable unit of logic, cell, or chip layout design and is also the intellectual property of one party. IP cores may be licensed to another party or can also be owned and used by a single party alone. The term is derived from the licensing of the patent and source code copyright intellectual property rights that subsist in the design. IP cores can be used as building blocks within ASIC chip designs or FPGA logic designs.
In digital-logic applications, IP cores are typically offered as generic gate netlists. The netlist is a boolean-algebra representation (gates, standard cells) of the IP's logical-function, analogous to an assembly-code listing for a high-level program application. The netlist protects the vendor against reverse-engineering, while maintaining portability to multiple foundry targets. Some vendors also offer synthesizable versions of their IP cores. Synthesizable cores are delivered in a hardware description language such as Verilog or VHDL, permitting customer modification (at the functional level). Both netlist and synthesizable cores are called 'soft cores', as both follow the SPR design-flow (synthesis, placement and route.)
Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_intellectual_property_core)
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cores
In electronic design a semiconductor intellectual property core, IP block, IP core, or logic core is a reusable unit of logic, cell, or chip layout design and is also the intellectual property of one party. IP cores may be licensed to another party or can also be owned and used by a single party alone. The term is derived from the licensing of the patent and source code copyright intellectual property rights that subsist in the design. IP cores can be used as building blocks within ASIC chip designs or FPGA logic designs. In digital-logic applications, IP cores are typically offered as generic gate netlists. The netlist is a boolean-algebra representation (gates, standard cells) of the IP's logical-function, analogous to an assembly-code listing for a high-level program application. The netlist protects the vendor against reverse-engineering, while maintaining portability to multiple foundry targets. Some vendors also offer synthesizable versions of their IP cores. Synthesizable cores are delivered in a hardware description language such as Verilog or VHDL, permitting customer modification (at the functional level). Both netlist and synthesizable cores are called 'soft cores', as both follow the SPR design-flow (synthesis, placement and route.)
Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_intellectual_property_core)
(Note: The Electronic Engineers Toolbox provides an alternative set of featured links for this word at http://www.cera2.com/cores.htm)
Explanation: these links are provided as part of our EE glossary project, which seeks to identify the most prominent keywords in embedded systems, embedded software, realtime and rtos, dsp (digital signal processing), system-on-a-chip, microprocessors and microcontrollers, and other constituent elements for embedded systems. While we seek to keep most of the links up-to-date, the user is refered to other primary electronic-based search sites such as: cera2.com, embedded.com, or EDN Magazine. If you have any suggestions of links or definitions, please email!
Mark Twain quote for the day:
I have seen slower people than I am - and more deliberate...and even quieter, and more listless, and lazier people than I am. But they were dead.
- "Memoranda", Galaxy Magazine, 12/1870