Intellectual property metering

Abstract

We have developed the first hardware and software (intellectual property) metering scheme that enables reliable low overhead proofs for the number of manufactured parts and copied programs. The key idea is to make each design/ progrsm slightly different during postprocessing phase. Therefore, if two identical hardware/software designs or a design that is not reported by the foundry are detected, the design house has proof of misconduct. We start by establishing implementation requirements for intellectual property metering. We also establish the connection between the requirements for hardware and software metering and synthesis/compilation process. Furthermore, we present mathematical analysis of statistical accuracy of the proposed hardware and software metering schemes. The effectiveness of the metering scheme is demonstrated on a number of designs and programs.