Scope: DATE 2008, IP acquisition

Scope peers ahead to the 2008 Design Automation and Test Europe conference, discusses the trend toward acquiring, rather than licensiing, IP, and shows you a page from EDN 50 years ago.

Edited by Ron Wilson -- EDN, 1/24/2008

Looking Ahead: To Design Automation and Test Europe 2008

The DATE (Design Automation and Test Europe) conference will run from March 10 through 14 in Munich, Germany. Although many still think of the conference as the strictly European little brother of the much larger Design Automation Conference in the United States, this event has grown to attract a unique set of technical papers and special topic sessions, making it worth consideration for North American engineers, as well. Papers give a much better view into vital European research and development and reflect markets that are better developed in Europe, such as ultra-low-power systems, mobile TV, and automotive electronics. The special topics this year—dependable embedded systems and automotive electronics—are good examples.

A compact, air-transportable radio-communication terminal with an antenna that inflates like a balloon is in evaluation by the US Army. Designed by Collins Radio Co, the terminal comes packed in two metal containers that double as shelters when the station is operating. The Transhorizon radio uses scattering of radio waves to provide reliable, bidirectional communication over 50 to 150 miles without intermediate relays for up to 12 voice or 96 teletypewriter messages. The terminal uses two 15-foot, dish-shaped antennas. Each antenna comes as an inflatable, balloonlike envelope, coated on one surface with aluminum to form a reflector. The complete assembly, including tower, weighs only 400 lbs and stores in a space of 3×2×7.5 feet. 
—Electrical Design News, January 1958

Just as we were beginning to enjoy a smoothly functioning market for silicon IP (intellectual property), a new trend is emerging. Large semiconductor companies and system developers are beginning to acquire—rather than simply license IP from—small IP vendors. As one large company puts it, the amount of information that must flow between design teams to successfully integrate one company’s IP into another company’s design is simply too large, given the social, practical, and legal barriers to information flow between corporations. As IP and design flows both become more complex, we may have to either rethink our concepts of trade secrets and patent protection or wave goodbye to a vibrant third-party-IP market.