Industry Expert Blogs
IP Components Are EDA Tools-January 12, 2015 |
It has been just about 25 years since the first IP product was licensed and yet there are still questions about the true nature of the IP industry. A few years ago EDAC started providing figures for IP revenue, and that created a debate that to some extent continues today. Is an IP company an EDA company? Some say yes and some strongly object and prefer to define an IP company as a fabless semiconductor company. Is there a correct definition of the industry that creates IP? And which IP are we talking about? EDAC is looking only at hardware IP, but of course there are many software IP products available. What is IP? The name itself is not very specific. IP stands for Intellectual Property, but that covers anything that can be copyrighted, patented, or otherwise claimed to be property that cannot be freely copied, sold, or used without express permission from its creator. It was not the intention of the creator of the term to cover all those items, but then marketing is a difficult if imprecise, job.