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

摘要

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.

主权项

1. A method of licensing an electronic circuit design for use within at least one target IC (integrated circuit), comprising the steps of:
licensing the electronic circuit design for use within the target IC on a per-usage basis, including: storing first licensing information in a computerized data storage, the first licensing information including a product code for the electronic circuit design, and a unique serial number for a computerized licensing controller, the computerized data storage being communicably coupled to the computerized licensing controller; reading, by the computerized licensing controller, the unique serial number for the computerized licensing controller from the computerized data storage, and identifying at least one license that is assigned to the unique serial number for the computerized licensing controller, wherein the first licensing information further includes an updatable number indicating how many of the at least one license assigned to the unique serial number for the computerized licensing controller are currently unused; receiving, at the computerized licensing controller, test data for testing the electronic circuit design within the target IC or programming data for configuring the electronic circuit design within the target IC, the test data or programming data including second licensing information, the second licensing information including the product code for the electronic circuit design; reading, by the computerized licensing controller, the product code for the electronic circuit design from the computerized data storage, and verifying, by the computerized licensing controller, that the product code for the electronic circuit design included in the second licensing information corresponds with the product code for the electronic circuit design read from the computerized data storage; having verified that the product code for the electronic circuit design included in the second licensing information corresponds with the product code for the electronic circuit design read from the computerized data storage, reading, by the computerized licensing controller, the updatable number from the computerized data storage, and verifying, by the computerized licensing controller, that one of the at least one license assigned to the unique serial number for the computerized licensing controller is currently unused based at least in part on the updatable number; having verified that one of the at least one license assigned to the unique serial number for the computerized licensing controller is currently unused, delivering, via the computerized licensing controller, the test data or programming data to the target IC; and if the applied test data passes one or more tests or the programming data is applied to the target IC for the first time, updating, by the computerized licensing controller, the updatable number stored in the computerized data storage.