The VSI Alliance's hard- and soft-IP tagging standards have been updated and, for the first time, will be made available to the engineering community for download. Both standards are products of the organization's IP Protection Pillar. They allow for designers to retain IP-core information throughout the entire design process and ensure that the proper versions of the core(s) have been integrated into a design in progress.
The hard-IP tagging standard now includes additional required keywords for IP_Owner, Techno, Spec Version, Date and Time, and others. The soft-IP standard was updated to reflect the hard-IP tagging updates.
Also new is a tag reader/writer donated by Freescale Semiconductor. The software was developed by Freescale for internal use and has proved useful for version control and core tracking. The Tag IP Software (TIPS) enables users to employ a common user interface to read and write tags into physical designs independent of the EDA tool used. An XML schema maintains tag information.
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