In the wake of the VSI Alliance's (VSIA's) announcement that it will cease operation, IEEE has formed two study groups
to examine VSIA's Quality IP (QIP) Metric
standard and encryption activities. The
Quality IP Study Group and Encryption
Study Group will evaluate VSIA technology with an eye toward potential new
standards.
The VSIA QIP Metric standard gives companies a way to evaluate intellectual property (IP) from internal groups or third parties for the components used to
construct ASICs, systems-on-a-chip
(SoCs), or other ICs. VSIA's encryption
work, which began earlier this year, is
based on a document contributed by Synplicity and aims to provide a standard to
safeguard semiconductor IP cores, thus
protecting their developers' investments.
The study groups will make their recommendations on whether or not to proceed
with formal standards development in the
next 90 days. Before doing so, they will
explore each possible standard from such
perspectives as market potential, compatibility with related standards, differences
from other projects, and whether a viable
pool of volunteer leadership and participants exists.
Companies participating in the Quality IP
Study Group include Freescale, LSI, EDAcentrum, Mentor Graphics, and Cadence.
It is chaired by Kathy Werner, IP strategy
and business manager of Freescale Semiconductor.
Participants in the Encryption Study
Group include Synplicity, Altera, LSI, Synopsys, Mentor, and CAST. The group is
chaired by Gary Delp, distinguished engineer, LSI. Both groups are sponsored by
the IEEE Design Automation Standards
Committee (DASC).
The IEEE and the DASC invite all interested parties to participate in these study
groups. For further information on the
Quality IP Study Group, contact Kathy
Werner at [email protected].
For more on the Encryption Study Group,
contact Gary Delp at [email protected].
IEEE
standards.ieee.org
VSI Alliance
www.vsia.org
