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cores: Definition and Recommended Links

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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)

other great electronics sites:ee toolbox site

• • 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)

      Featured Links:

      Processor Overviews

      BDTI has compiled key information on 60 architectures from 22 vendors. BDTI's Processor Overviews are intended to be used as a reference by DSP engineers and designers who need to quickly compare the basic architectural features of currently available DSPs and general-purpose processors.
      http://www.bdti.com/procsum/index.htm

      Open Core Protocol International Partnership (OCP-IP)

      OCP-IP is a ground-breaking industry association dedicated to making a common standard for intellectual property core interfaces, or sockets, that facilitate 'plug and play' SOC design. To make complex SOC design a reality for a broader audience, the industry needs a complete socket standard that everyone can use, no matter what their on-chip architecture is, or whose processor cores they're using.
      http://www.ocpip.org/

      Free Model Foundry

      The Free Model Foundry (FMF) is dedicated to the furtherance of standard modeling practices within the electrical engineering community. In particular we support the use of VHDL, Verilog, and IBIS modeling languages. Our current focus is on providing functional simulation models (with timing) of off-the-shelf digital components in VHDL and Verilog.
      http://www.freemodelfoundry.com/

      X5-GSPS

      PCI Express XMC Module with Two 8-bit National ADC08D1500 A/Ds, Virtex5 FPGA and 512 MB Memory. The X5-GSPS is an XMC I/O module featuring two 8-bit, National Semiconductor 1.5 GSPS ADC08D1500 A/Ds with a Virtex5 FPGA computing core, DRAM and SRAM memory, and eight lane PCI Express host interface. A Xilinx Virtex5 SX95T with 512 MB DDR2 DRAM and 4MB QDR-II memory provide a very high performance DSP core for demanding applications such as emerging wireless standards. The close integration of the analog IO, memory and host interface with the FPGA enables real-time signal processing at extremely high rates exceeding 300 GMACs per second.
      http://www.innovative-dsp.com

      Evatronix adds 6502 and 80186XL ISA-compliant IP cores to its portfolio

      Evatronix SA, a Silicon Intellectual Property (IP) provider, has announced today its newest products: C80186XL and C6502 soft IP cores. They aim at original chip replacement applications and therefore significant effort was undertaken to achieve the degree of reliability that guarantees trouble-free porting of the existing software to FPGA or ASIC based core implementations. The C6502 IP core can be distinguished by its extreme...
      http://www.evatronix.pl/news/press39.html

      Bird Computer

      If you're looking for a FPGA SoC core this is the place to look. Available Cores Free for personal or evaluation purposes. All cores are written in Verilog. License required for commercial use.
      http://www.birdcomputer.ca/

      OpenCores

      OpenCores is a loose collection of people who are interested in developing hardware, with a similar ethos to the free software movement. Currently the emphasis is on digital modules called 'cores', since FPGAs have reduced the incremental cost of a core to approximately zero.
      http://www.opencores.org/

      Semiconductor intellectual property core @ Wikipedia

      In electronic design a semiconductor intellectual property core, IP block, or IP 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. An uncommon...
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_intellectual_property_core

      Firecracker Development and Reference Design Platform

      Introducing the FireCracker! Based on Analog Devices popular Blackfin embedded processor, Silica has developed the FireCracker Development and Reference Design Platform for audio and video applications. FireCracker is a unique concept of a hybrid between a development board and a reference design that enables design engineers to bring embedded computing solutions from concept to production in record time.
      http://www.eg3.com

      EDN 2008 DSP Directory

      As it does every year, this directory groups an ever-expanding list of digital-signal-processing resources in to a single repository. Use the directory to sift through the device and core offerings of more than 45 vendors by company name or by your target application; download comprehensive specification details and device diagrams; and quickly zero in on the products you need for your designs.
      http://www.edn.com/article/CA6541396.html

      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:

If I were to construct a God I would furnish Him with some way and qualities and characteristics which the Present lacks. He would not stoop to ask for any man's compliments, praises, flatteries; and He would be far above exacting them. I would have Him as self-respecting as the better sort of man in these regards.
He would not be a merchant, a trader. He would not buy these things. He would not sell, or offer to sell, temporary benefits of the joys of eternity for the product called worship. I would have Him as dignified as the better sort of man in this regard.
He would value no love but the love born of kindnesses conferred; not that born of benevolences contracted for. Repentance in a man's heart for a wrong done would cancel and annul that sin; and no verbal prayers for forgiveness be required or desired or expected of that man.
In His Bible there would be no Unforgiveable Sin. He would recognize in Himself the Author and Inventor of Sin and Author and Inventor of the Vehicle and Appliances for its commission; and would place the whole responsibility where it would of right belong: upon Himself, the only Sinner.
He would not be a jealous God-- a trait so small that even men despise it in each other.
He would not boast.
He would keep private Hs admirations of Himself; He would regard self-praise as unbecoming the dignity of his position.
He would not have the spirit of vengeance in His heart. Then it would not issue from His lips.
There would not be any hell-- except the one we live in from the cradle to the grave.
There would not be any heaven-- the kind described in the world's Bibles.
He would spend some of His eternities in trying to forgive Himself for making man unhappy when he could have made him happy with the same effort and he would spend the rest of them in studying astronomy.
- Mark Twain's Notebook