There is now getting away from it - times are a changing for total system design platforms, thanks to consumer demand.

There is the old adage, that the customer is always right and in this case it seems to be true!  Consumers are demanding more complex devices to deliver the increasing appetite for digital media capabilities in the gadgets and gizmos they buy.  And they are getting their way. 

Mobile devices are increasingly becoming the primary targets for delivering streaming video, audio, digital photography and 3-D gaming services to consumers. As a result system designers are having to reconsider the way they use intellectual property (IP). Subsequently this increases the demand for more complete systems platforms; including single or multiple cores, high function IP peripherals and libraries, integrated bus and foundation software - OS and middle ware software.

Previously designers toiled to make IP blocks work across a variety of applications that were usually application-independent, but adhered to a specific function.  IP today is no-longer limited to individual building blocks for designers.  They are increasingly chained to specific applications and come as assembled subsystems. 

The reason for this, as with most things in life is economic. The biggest proportion undoubtedly landing on the desks of the system OEMs who are digging deep in their pockets for the development costs.

As part of this trend, design-outsourcing companies have found their roles change from a pair of safe, helping hands to that of co-developers, bringing with them much needed heavyweight signal-processing experience. This has fast been recognized by core IP vendors, who've been altering their roadmaps accordingly.

As IP blocks become more application specific, so vendors are quickly responding to market needs. Recently ARM rolled out its NEON technology - a 64/128-bit SIMD (single instruction multiple data) instruction set that provides standardized accelerations for next generation media and signal processing applications. NEON is targeted specifically at streaming digital content.

ARM said NEON technology will be implemented in future ARM processors, and will be supported by ARM and third-party tool chains enabling broad industry adoption.  ARM is confident NEON will benefit everyone from the chip designer through to the consumer.  In addition it hasn't hidden the fact that broader architectural support is in the pipeline.

In line with the demands of consumers, system OEMs are demanding simpler designing and programming for such devices as their plates become increasingly full.  With the rapid move to digital media, they've suddenly been confronted with - for them- a sea of uncharted technology. Suddenly they are throwing buoys to IP vendors who are having to offer them support.

With digital media set to permeate every moment of our waking hour - and maybe sleeping if dream machines are a thing of the future - IP vendors are set to see IP flipped over.  Forget reusable IP, we're going to see IP become far more application specific and with that - as ARM has already underlined with NEON - will come extensive support from traditional SIMD code right through to precoded libraries for teams working in new fields. 

Support, it seems, is the latest buzz word for the IP world.