The emergence of intellectual property components has caused a redefinition of the field of embedded systems. Many modern embedded systems are defined as multi-chip modules (MCMs) or System on a Chip (SoC) designs composed of IP components from a variety of vendors. Engineers often spend a significant portion of time reviewing IP components for suitability to their respective embedded system design. This process considers a myriad of permutations before the final components are selected. This task seeks to answer the following questions:

• What IP component attributes distinguish each from the other?
• Can these attributes be specified in a general manner such that they may be applied to a finite sized set of disparate IP components?
• Is there a clear an unambiguous methodology to categorize IP components?
• Is it possible to develop an automated tool that anneals over various categories of IP components to yield an optimal composition set (OCS)?

GOAL:
The goal is to provide valuable insight into the handling of IP components from a variety of vendors by contributing a general means of IP component classification and a methodology on the selection of the OCS for a “specified” embedded system design.

OBJECTIVE:
The objective of this project is to develop concepts to classify, describe, characterize, and manage intellectual property components to aid design engineers in the selection of an optimal IP component set for embedded systems designs.