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What is Firm Macro and whats its use in ASIC design?

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smith_kang

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about Firm Macro

hi
we heard of Hard & Soft Macros but What is Firm Macro and what is its significance in ASIC design.

thanks
 

about Firm Macro

Soft macro --> RTL IP.
Firm macro --> Netlist targeted for any process. (can be for Fpga or ASIC)
Hard Macro.--> GDSII Layout of the design.
 

Re: about Firm Macro

hi whizkid
ya right but what is the significance of firm macro.they have only gate level netlist but no layout.that work we can do with soft macros also.
can you provide some examples of firm macro?
thanks
 

Re: about Firm Macro

with firm core, they do not need to give you rtl code,
they can protect their rtl code in this way.

actually in real word, some hard core will act like firm core.

bests
kinysh
 

Re: about Firm Macro

smith_kang said:
ya right but what is the significance of firm macro.they have only gate level netlist but no layout.that work we can do with soft macros also.
can you provide some examples of firm macro?
thanks
Click to expand...

If you have the RTL code(soft macro) with you, then firm macro is not having much importance, but if you are a fabless IP vendor, you can protect your technology by giving the IP as a tageted netlist. ofcourse netlist is also modifiable but its difficult compared to RTL modification..
usually in IP business , to buy a firm macro is cheaper than buying soft macro.

hope u r clear
 

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    smith_kang

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about Firm Macro

Hi, guys

I am confused with the method to build the protected codes(such as firm macro).

In our design, I find a IP with following style:

module module_name(
//interface
...
...
);

input input_signal;
input ...
...

output output_signal;
output ...
...

protected
//unkonw codes
...

protected

endmodule

How to build the protected function block? With compiled or with PLI, and so on??

Thanks
 

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