The TSMC IP Alliance Program, a key component of TSMC Open Innovation Platform® (OIP), includes major and leading IP companies, providing the semiconductor industry's largest catalog of silicon-verified, production-proven and foundry-specific intellectual property (IP). IP Alliance members can access TSMC technical data and/or libraries to design their IP, are assigned dedicated account managers and get dedicated support from TSMC IP technical support teams.
The TSMC9000 Program is related to TSMC's IP Alliance Program and defines a set of minimum IP quality requirements. IP partners submit data and apply to go through the TSMC9000 assessment for their IP. Assessment results are posted on TSMC-Online to help customers understand the confidence level and/or risk level of using these IPs. In addition, an extension of the TSMC9000 Program focuses on testing verification on system level to ensure the best possible design experience, easiest design reuse and the fastest integration into the overall design system. In addition, we also have an automotive assessment, TSMC9000A, which includes additional assessments on an IP’s automotive viability.
IP alliance members register their IP on TSMC's IP registration system to form TSMC's best-in-class ecosystem IP catalog. The TSMC IP catalog contains over tens of thousands of IP options from nearly 40 IP alliance members. Customers can perform IP search with advanced criteria options in the “IP Center” on TSMC-Online Design Portal.
All IPs in the TSMC IP catalog are created, directly sold and directly supported by the individual IP partner to better support each customer's particular design and business model. The following diagrams present the TSMC Ecosystem IP partners, and the various IP categories they provide, commonly used in a standard SoC design.
A Modern SOC Block and IP Diagram
TSMC IP Ecosystem Partners
Note: TSMC does not guarantee that silicon-verified IP will work in any given design environments or achieve certain production yield ratios. In addition, TSMC is not responsible for commitments made to customers by ecosystem partners.
TSMC9000, TSMC library and IP assessment program, aims to provide customers with a consistent and efficient process to review a set of baseline quality criteria for libraries and IPs designed for TSMC process technologies. Readily available assessment results could significantly shorten customer decision time to choose IP, design Lead Time (L/T), which also lowers Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the entire SoC design process. As of August 2023, there are a total 60,000+ IPs with dozens of IP types from ecosystem IP alliance members supporting hundreds of TSMC process technologies including the most advanced nodes to specialty technologies like BCD, eFlash, HV, and CIS.
The TSMC9000 program is an IP assessment program that defines multiple assessments and controls that cover key milestones through the whole IP lifecycle. For hardened IP, physical review and pre-silicon assessment of the IP design, including design kits and design margin reviews, are performed before test chip tape-outs. Then a test chip tape-out review is conducted for major IPs followed by typical and split lot silicon assessments related to test chip silicon characterization reports. For IPs developed for the automotive segment, we created TSMC9000A program which conducts more assessments against add-on checklist for both before and after test chip tape-out.
For each registered IP, TSMC IP Alliance members submit required reports / data and based on these reports, TSMC conducts assessments and then give it TSMC9000 scores. TSMC9000 also labels the IP(s) which had been identified with known issues. Customers can also find IP usage record to give added confident level.
All the mentioned information is transparently shown on TSMC-online/IP search, where customers can refer to basic IP information with TSMC9000 scores, production records and labels of the IP(s) they are interested in.
To access TSMC's ecosystem IP offerings, check the TSMC9000 status, please log in to TSMC-Online and click on the "IP Center" link. From there, you can search for both TSMC and third-party vendors' IPs.
The more assessments the IP passes, the higher confidence it gets.
To access the TSMC9000 documentation, log into TSMC-Online, and click on the View and download TSMC9000 documents link to access the relevant materials.
The purpose of TSMC9000 IP Tag Specification, an enhancement of VSIA's IP Tag Specification, is to offer better IP tracking records and provide information from customers' tape-out database. The IP tracking record is used for IP usage analysis to assist in planning IP roadmaps. The volume production record of IP usage summary is posted on TSMC-Online for customers' reference in IP selection. The TSMC9000 IP Tag Specification is long-time proven in wafer production and tracking. As an effort to continuously extend its OIP ecosystem to enable more innovation, TSMC enables open access to its TSMC9000 IP Tag Specification.
If you are interested in being a member of the IP Alliance program and enabling tagging of your IP(s), please contact the IP Alliance team.