COMPONENT DESIGN
Why Chiplet Needs a “Beyond IP”
Management Approach
An interview with Simon Rance, director of product management and strategic marketing at Keysight Technologies
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hiplets are making big waves in the semiconductor industry, with its global market size growing at 71.3 percent from 2023 to 2031. Through the heterogeneous integration of multiple components of different nodes and technologies, semiconductor design teams are reinvigorating Moore’s law and paving the way for designs featuring multi-billion transistors and hundreds of semiconductor intellectual properties (IPs).
However, such powerful chiplet-based architectures have also introduced a new level of complexity in managing intellectual properties (IPs), from stringent export controls to compliances and IP security risks. To navigate these complexities, companies
need to adopt a comprehensive approach to IP lifecycle management, one that encompasses more than just the IP itself and considers a holistic perspective of its lifecycle. Keysight director of product management, Simon Rance, talks about the challenges associated with IP management for chiplet projects and how design teams can improve IP security and compliance.
Q: What are the key challenges associated with IP management for chiplet projects?
There is much more IP reuse due to the complexity and shorter timeframes for new designs. Most design teams deal with in-house IPs, often considered a company’s
12 OCTOBER 2024 | ELECTRONICS FOR ENGINEERS
“secret sauce”, and IPs licensed from third-party vendors. Such a mix underscores the necessity for a unifi ed platform capable of distinguishing between internal and third-party IPs while providing visibility to various attributes of each IP. For instance, a chiplet-based design can feature diverse IPs across different process nodes. As the design engineers must select the right IP based on process technologies, origins and licensing details, the traditional practice of tracking IPs through spreadsheets has become obsolete. Questions such as whether the existing license permits using the IP in a chiplet-based design are important.
Moreover, implementing a stringent
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