IP Management
IP management software: Xena and IP Grid
IP management software for chipmakers and IP vendors, so you know what IP you hold, which version each design uses and whose license covers it.
IP Grid: audit the design, control the IP
Two applications share one server framework. IPAudit checks what’s actually inside
your SoC, and IPVault controls who gets the IP and what they can do with it.
IPAudit™
Finds the soft IP in any SoC design and follows it all the way to tape-out, watching continuously or checking whenever you ask. Script SoC audits, IP registration, hardware and software validation and usage analysis from the command line, or drive them through APIs.
IPVault™
Catalogs, stores and distributes your IP, then traces every access, whether the person asking is on your team or a customer’s. Tickets, notifications and license records sit beside the IP they belong to.
Deployment
Run it on its own, or connect it to the flow and business processes you already have through industry-standard interfaces. You can get at the data models directly to build your own reports, and the system scales as your organization grows.
Governance
Filters and full-text search across one catalog, with version and lifecycle status on every title. Role-based permissions decide who sees each asset and what they’re allowed to do with it.
Xena IP management: the business
and the engineering in one record
Xena® runs both sides of semiconductor IP from a single data model. Sell IP, and it’s
the platform you deliver and support it from. Build or buy it, and it tracks and controls your
internal IP alongside everything you license from suppliers.
Enterprise IP catalog
Every IP title, summarized as briefly or as fully as you like. Your teams search the full text, or filter by categories and attributes you define: digital or analog, maturity, silicon process. Datasheets and compliance reports attach to the title, and passports control what each user sees.
Release management
Xena works alongside Git, Subversion or ClearCase instead of replacing them. Lock the exact version your designers should use and mark it development, released or obsolete. Then publish the errata and release notes, and Xena notifies every affected user when a new release arrives.
Access control
Every IP is tied to three things: who may download it, which contract it falls under and which devices are cleared to carry it. You see who downloaded what, and when. Managers get alerts as maintenance, support or warranty nears expiry.
Contracts
A license’s terms live in one place: the access period, dated or perpetual, the maintenance, support and warranty periods, and the payment terms. Use restrictions go down to individual countries. Milestones can make a payment conditional on reaching them.
Support
Licensed users with an active support agreement file tickets, each with a type and a severity. You route each one to the expert covering that product and that customer. Your team keeps private notes and effort logs, shares files securely, and messages customers all at once or by company, license or product. Every issue keeps its full history, down to who downloaded or shared what.
Devices, reports and fingerprinting
Each device record holds its process, foundry and node, the IP it contains and its contracts. Milestones run from project start through tape-out to end of life, and completing one can release a contract payment. Reports cover tickets, licenses, devices, contracts, financials and more, on filters you can save and rerun. Fingerprinting and DNA analysis scan a chip design database for the IP inside it, so you can act on what you find.
Where IP Grid and Xena overlap
Both catalog IP, gate access and run support tickets. IP Grid splits the work into two modules, with IPAudit following IP usage through the design cycle. Xena ties contracts, releases and devices together in one data model. Your flow decides which fits. Describe it to an IP specialist and you’ll get a straight answer.
What teams use IP management software for
Tracking third-party IP usage inside an SoC
Confirm which licensed IP is really in the design before it tapes out.
License and contract compliance
Show which contract and terms cover each use of an IP.
Internal IP catalog and reuse
Reuse starts from a searchable record of what your teams already built, not a spreadsheet.
IP vendor delivery and support operations
Ship releases to licensees and answer their tickets from the system that holds their contracts.
Take it into your review
Building the case internally? The IP Grid overview is a PDF you can forward straight to the rest
of the team.
Product brief · PDF
Summer 2026
IP Grid overview (PDF)
Tell us how your IP moves today
Where your IP is kept, what your designers pull it from, who needs access and which
contracts govern it. Walk an IP specialist through that and you’ll know which platform fits
and how licensing works. Silvaco licenses IP and builds EDA tools too, so one
conversation can cover the IP you manage and the tools around it.
Questions about IP management software
What is IP management software?
IP management software keeps one record of the semiconductor IP a company builds and licenses. It shows what exists, which version is released, which design uses it and who's licensed to use it. SoCs rely more and more on third-party and reused IP, often shared across teams in different places, so engineering and the business need the same facts.
What is the difference between IP Grid and Xena?
IP Grid pairs two modules on a shared server: IPAudit finds and tracks the IP inside a design, while IPVault handles cataloging, distribution and support. Xena covers the commercial and engineering sides of IP in one platform, keeping contracts, releases and device records in a single data model. Much of the ground they cover overlaps.
What do IPAudit and IPVault do?
IPAudit finds soft IP in an SoC design and tracks it through tape-out. It registers IP, audits the SoC, analyzes usage and validates hardware and software, all scriptable through a command line or APIs. IPVault is the catalog and distribution side: storage, access tracing for internal and external users, support tickets, alerts, and contract and license records.
Does it replace a design management system?
No. Xena sits alongside Git, Subversion, ClearCase or whichever design management system you use. It locks the exact IP version from that system, then serves it from Xena or any location you choose, the DM system included. IP Grid runs on its own or inside the flows you already have, through industry-standard interfaces.
How is access to IP controlled?
In Xena, a license model sets who may download an IP, the contract that use falls under and the devices authorized for it. Passports limit what each person sees. IP Grid uses role-based permissions, so you can distribute and support IP for internal teams and outside customers without opening every asset to everyone.
Which one should I use?
It depends on how your teams work. If the first problem is knowing which IP sits in a design, IP Grid's IPAudit is built around it. If you need contracts, releases and devices tied together, Xena holds them in a single record. Because they overlap, it's worth describing your flow to an IP specialist before you choose.
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