Getting Started with FPGA Basics

IP (Intellectual Property) is often referred to as intellectual property. Dataquest Consulting Company in the United States defines IP in the semiconductor industry as a pre-designed circuit module used in ASIC, ASSP and PLD, etc. IP core modules have three different levels of design: behavior, structure and physical. They are divided into three categories according to the different descriptions of functional behaviors, namely soft core (Soft IP Core), firm core (Firm IP Core) with completed structural description and hard core (Hard IP Core) based on physical description and process verification. What is a soft core? IP soft core is usually submitted to the user in the form of HDL text. It has been optimized and functionally verified at the RTL level, but it does not contain any specific physical information. Based on this, the user can synthesize the correct gate circuit level design netlist and can carry out subsequent structural design. It has great flexibility. With the help of EDA synthesis tools, it can be easily integrated with other external logic circuits and designed into devices with different performances according to various semiconductor processes. Soft IP core is also called virtual component (VC-Virtual Component). What is a hard core? An IP hard core is a physical design based on semiconductor technology. It has a fixed topology layout and specific process, and has been process-verified with guaranteed performance. It is provided to users in the form of a circuit physical structure mask layout and a full set of process files, which is a full set of technologies that can be used right out of the box. What is a solid core? The design level of an IP solid core is between a soft core and a hard core. In addition to completing all the designs of a soft core, it also completes design links such as gate-level circuit synthesis and timing simulation. It is generally provided to users in the form of a gate-level circuit netlist.