April 14, 2011 -- In order to speed up design cycles and to reduce development costs, use of external IP is increasingly becoming more popular. However, this IP-based design is not free of considerable effort and saves only about half of the effort required to develop the IP internally. The concept of Intelligent Design Automation (IDA) is presented here which uses intelligent algorithms such as matchmaking algorithm, rating systems, fuzzy logic, and multi-criteria optimization. This article also presents the idea of IP Integration Automation, or I2A, tools. Much of the technology required for these concepts to become reality already exists in various forms and is in use for a different class of solutions.

By Aseem Gupta, Ph.D. (Gupta is with Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.)