eldo_user

Eldo Netlist Setup
Protection of Encrypted Libraries
Protection of Encrypted Libraries
An improved IP protection system is available for IP providers, providing an additional level of
protection compared to simple encryption available through the encrypt_eldo utility. The device
model libraries provided by IP providers (typically foundries) often contain process sensitive
information such as SPICE device models, equations, technology parameters, and so on. These
may be encrypted, but there is no easy way to restrict the usage of these encrypted model
libraries. In particular, there is no way to restrict the allowed duration of usage.
The purpose of the enhanced IP protection system is to enable an IP provider to ship encrypted
and licensed model libraries to their customers, independent of Mentor Graphics. The licensing
mechanism might be a standard commercial license managing system. Using the system, the IP
provider can control the usage of its model libraries in exactly the same way that any
commercial software is controlled, using features, license files, expiration dates, and so on. The
system is designed in such a way that Mentor Graphics does not have to know the final endusers,
nor generate any keys nor licenses. The IP provider creates and provides both the
encrypted IP (the model libraries) and an “IP access library.” The IP access library is a dynamic
load library (compiled C code). Mentor Graphics does not interfere with the encryption process,
nor the license generation, maintenance, renewals, and so on, which are the entire responsibility
of the IP provider.
Preparing and Installing a Protected Library
Lists the steps involved in preparing and installing a vendor-specific protected/encrypted
library.
Procedure
1. The vendor, or IP provider, prepares a single IP access library. This is a dynamic load
library coded in C.
2. The vendor then prepares and encrypts the Eldo library source for each library the
vendor wishes to distribute.
3. The user installs the vendor-specific IP access library and the vendor protected/
encrypted libraries.
4. The user then installs the licensing software and keys provided by the IP vendor.
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