Developing silicon intellectual property E-trade mechanisms for system on chip design and integration

Abstract

The integration of IC design and manufacturing (IDM) is a major trend in the modern management paradigm of the semiconductor supply chain. In order to shorten the time-to-market for complex system-on-chips (SoC), the trade and reuse of silicon intellectual properties (SIPs) for fast IC design becomes a critical success factor for semiconductor IDM. In this research, intelligent mobile agents and fuzzy evaluation models are built into a knowledge services and trade platform (KSTP). The mobile agent behaviour model is used for knowledge acquisition and negotiations between sites of SIP providers, buyers and intermediators. The agent-based KSTP considers time, cost and precision of acquiring SIP information needed for SoC design and fabrication. For trade partner matching, fuzzy evaluation models are developed to consistently suggest suitable partners for trades under different circumstances. The ultimate goal of the research is to enable autonomous, dynamic and collaborative SIP exchanges and trades in the global value chain of semiconductor industry.

Keywords:

• Silicon intellectual property (SIP)
• System on chip (SoC)
• Knowledge services
• E-trade
• Mobile agent

Acknowledgement

This research is partially supported by the National Science Council and the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan.