How to Speed-Up Product Development With Reusable Circuitry

 

Introduction

• Overview of the product development lifecycle
• The promise of reusable circuit IP for accelerating time-to-market
• Reusable circuits in analog, digital, and mixed-signal designs

The Cost of Building Custom Circuits

• Hardware development costs broken down
• Time spent in schematic capture and PCB layout
• Verification testing and spin of prototypes
• Table comparing custom circuit development vs reusable circuits

Metric	Custom Circuit	Reusable Circuit IP
Upfront NRE	High	Low
Development Time	Long	Short
Verification Time	Long	Short
Risk	High	Low

Types of Reusable Circuit IP

Analog IP

• Common building blocks e.g. LDOs, ADCs
• Benefits and integration challenges
• Example vendor: Analog Bits

Digital IP

• Microcontrollers, interfaces, peripherals
• Soft IP vs hard IP tradeoffs
• Example vendor: ARM

Mixed-Signal IP

• More complex functions e.g. PHYs, haptic drivers
• Hard IP challenges
• Example vendor: CEVA

Integrating Third-Party IP

• IP delivery methods
• Simulation, layout, packaging concerns
• Modifying and optimizing IP

Creating Your Own Reusable IP

• Identifying circuit opportunities
• Design for reuse guidelines
• Toolflows and design repositories

Accelerating System-Level Design

• IP-based system modeling
• Virtual prototyping with IP
• Hardware/software co-design

FQA

Q: Does developing with reusable IP compromise uniqueness or competitiveness?

A: While some customization may be given up, the development velocity and cost benefits often outweigh this. Well-designed IP leaves room for differentiation higher up the product stack.

Q: What are some hidden costs around integrating reusable circuits?

A: There can sometimes be extra verification, software development, tools licenses, or customization costs versus fully custom circuits.

Q: In what cases does reusable analog IP fall short?

A: Highly specialized analog sensing and power management circuits can't easily be made reusable across applications. Digital/mixed-signal IP are more portable

I'd be happy to expand any section and add specific data, research, use cases or other details that you would like covered in the article. Please let me know if you have any other questions!