Date: 06/03/2012

Community for open source hardware and VLSI IP cores

When the open source is the buzz in system software, there is also a growing use of open source IPs in VLSI chip design. The semiconductor industry highly depends on ready to use IPs to design the products quickly but it costs high. If somebody wanted to take risk by using open source VLSI IP, there is this community called Open Cores for open source hardware and VLSI IP cores.

Open Cores, the online community with url www.opencores.org has more than 144K registered users.

Semiconductor and hardware design engineers can find Processor IP cores, interface cores such as SPI, I2C, memory controller in the projects section of opencores,org.
Sections such as Arithmetic core, prototype board, communication controller, co-processor, crypto-core, DSP core, ECC, SoC, System Controller, Video Controller are listed in the searchable database. The IP core database can be searchable by programming language such as VHDL, Verilog, SystemC, Bluespec, C/C++. The various design stages, license options can be filtered in the search. The IP core can be selected based on ASIC proven, FPGA proven, Specs done, and OpenCores certified.

Though a risky option for a commercial high-budget chip design, but worth the evaluation for some of IPs, provided the company has resources to test, tune and validate the IP.

Check the website of Open Cores at www.opencores.org