Incorporation of trust into integrated circuit (IC) and field programmable gate array (FPGA) design

As designs continue to progress in complexity, integration of third party assets has become a standard practice in hardware designs. Third party design integration, while reducing the complexity of the design process, always introduces risk in terms of the access to the internal components. These introduced elements are sometimes enclosed in a black-box, where system integrators cannot peek. Through the application of the VT-IP solution, we provide a framework for allowing more visibility and control over the functionality of integrated designs into FPGA hardware. The solution also provides a methodology for protecting critical device elements from adverse behavior in a third party design. The resulting capabilities will result in a marked increase in trust for FPGA integrators.