Management system, method and apparatus for licensed delivery and accounting of electronic circuits

Abstract

A system and method of licensing electronic circuit designs within target electronic circuits or devices that allows secure delivery and reliable accounting of the licensed circuit designs on a per-usage basis. The method includes determining whether an electronic circuit design is licensable for use within a target electronic circuit by verifying licensing information included in a set of predetermined vectors associated with the electronic circuit design. In the event it is determined that the electronic circuit design is licensable for use within the target electronic circuit, the set of vectors is applied to the target electronic circuit by a licensing controller. Next, in response to a predetermined event, an attribute of the licensing information is updated to indicate the licensed use of the electronic circuit design within the target circuit. The licensing system allows IP core providers and IP core users to account for the use of licensed electronic circuit designs on a per-usage basis with higher accuracy, thereby providing increased assurance that the electronic circuit designs are being licensed in a manner that is fair to all parties.

Description

[0001] Cross References to Related Applications [0002] This application claims priority to US Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 350,885, filed January 23, 2002, entitled "Management System, Method and Apparatus for Licensed Delivery and Accounting of Intellectual Property in Electronic Circuits." [0003] A statement about federally funded research or development. [0004] N / A Background technique [0005] The present invention relates generally to the licensing of electronic circuit designs programmably configurable or designed in target electronic circuits, and more particularly to a method for securely licensing the delivery of licensed electronic circuit designs for use within target electronic circuits and accurate billing systems and methods. [0006] In recent years, as the size and complexity of integrated circuits (ICs) have increased, many circuit designers have found that it is no longer practical to design ICs using existing dedicated circuits. As a re...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Additionally, the per-use license allows IP users to scale the cost of licensed IP cores over the life of the product

However, while per-use licensing is generally fairer and more predictable than per-project licensing, per-use licensing typically does not provide IP providers with a reliable way of counting the number of times an IP core is actually used, i.e., during the production of an IC. Number of IP cores adopted

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