Re: Using 3rd Party IP Cores...

This is a high level question about IP Core business models.
> I know about the "free" cores at opencores.org and I know you can pay > someone $15,000.00 to license a USB core. > > What I'm looking for are companies that are in the middle whose pricing > competes with dedicated chips.

This is like buying a used car, pricing is negotiable. Cores are hard to sell and there are lots of sellers and consultants.

Write a detailed proposal telling exactly what your are doing and what your willing to pay. In your case the value to you is about $10 * 300 * 3 years = $9000. So maybe offer $4500. Request a compiled sim model and testbench to evaluate the core.

Email it out, and you should get some responses. Deal directly the author or his company rather than resellers.

If they don't respond, or can't provide a model and testbench, cross them off the list. Like you say, you can always call NetChip instead.

-- Mike Treseler

Take a look at Core Foundry. They specialize in making FPGAs a less expensive solution compared to an ASIC or ASSP. That includes the licensing and small quantities.

For example, they can stuff two independent OC48 performance monitors, and do concatenated payload extraction, in the slowest speed grade 1C3 Cyclone part. Qty = 1, that part costs about $17. A single channel ASSP might run you $150 or more, times 2. Plus you use less board space and power.

I've talked to them about licensing and they can work in a variety of ways. One of interest was spreading the license "fee" out over some quantity of parts. This gets applied when parts are purchased, so there isn't any up-front fee to burden an engineering budget. It gets tacked onto the BOM like any other component on the board. The fee is qty dependent like any other part, and expires after a predetermined total amount is paid. You can even buy out the license with a lump sum if desired.

There seem to be as many ways to license IP as their are vendors.

Good luck.

rep

out

NetChip