Hardware Based IP Protection

On Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 12:44:48 AM UTC-4, bitrex wrote:
> On 9/26/2022 4:09 PM, Ricky wrote: 
> > A customer wants me to redesign a board to eliminate the production bottlenecks. They also want all IP so they can make the boards themselves if my company is unable to. I'm fine with that, but I'd like to have some means of assurance they won't make boards without my royalty being respected. 
> > 
> > The board has an FPGA which contains the "magic", an analog path, and a digital path to the outside world. The digital path needs a 3.3V/5V interface. There are two opamps that serve as filters with gain. There is a need for several (3-4) LDOs. 
> > 
> > I've found a couple of chips from Greenpaks that could help here. One is a "Programmable Mixed-Signal Matrix" which could replace the opamps and provide a configurable gain using the programmable "rheostat". Another has four LDOs which would be useful and *might* be able to serve as the level shifter. 
> > 
> > I'm waiting to hear back from someone from Renesas, who can discuss this with me, or a disti FAE. There are a lot of questions about how to turn these into a custom part number to meet my needs. 
> > 
> > Anyone have experience with using these in production? 
> >
> Please let me know if you're able to get anyone and how it goes, It 
> seems like the Renesas acquisition of Dialog's lineup has been sloppy as 
> hell

I thought someone here has used the Greenpak parts before.  Maybe it was another group.  

-- 

Rick C.

--+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
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#youareexactlybigtrollandfaker

On Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 7:34:45 PM UTC+10, a a wrote:
> #youareexactlybigtrollandfaker

A a does now seem to be our leading troll. Whether he qualifies as a faker is open to doubt.

To fake something you have to pass it off as something which it isn't, and what a a posts is such bare-faced idiocy that it won't pass as anything else but idiocy.

A a may be stupid enough not to realise this, which would make him a faker-manque.

-- 
Bill Sloman, Sydney

#shutuplowbrainer

On Friday, September 30, 2022 at 3:10:06 AM UTC+10, a a wrote:
> #shutuplowbrainer

Now, now. That's essentially what I told you do. Repeating the same message back to me in a simplified form is a remarkably stupid response.

Snipping what I'd posted is even more obviously stupid. You are definitely even dumber than Gnatguy. As Feynman said, there's always room at the bottom.

-- 
Bill Sloman, Sydney

#shutupidiotfromsydney

On 9/29/2022 1:09 AM, Ricky wrote:
> On Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 12:44:48 AM UTC-4, bitrex wrote:
>> On 9/26/2022 4:09 PM, Ricky wrote:
>>> A customer wants me to redesign a board to eliminate the production bottlenecks. They also want all IP so they can make the boards themselves if my company is unable to. I'm fine with that, but I'd like to have some means of assurance they won't make boards without my royalty being respected.
>>>
>>> The board has an FPGA which contains the "magic", an analog path, and a digital path to the outside world. The digital path needs a 3.3V/5V interface. There are two opamps that serve as filters with gain. There is a need for several (3-4) LDOs.
>>>
>>> I've found a couple of chips from Greenpaks that could help here. One is a "Programmable Mixed-Signal Matrix" which could replace the opamps and provide a configurable gain using the programmable "rheostat". Another has four LDOs which would be useful and *might* be able to serve as the level shifter.
>>>
>>> I'm waiting to hear back from someone from Renesas, who can discuss this with me, or a disti FAE. There are a lot of questions about how to turn these into a custom part number to meet my needs.
>>>
>>> Anyone have experience with using these in production?
>>>
>> Please let me know if you're able to get anyone and how it goes, It
>> seems like the Renesas acquisition of Dialog's lineup has been sloppy as
>> hell
> 
> I thought someone here has used the Greenpak parts before.  Maybe it was another group.
> 

Nah it was me (though there another guy here who's used them also, "BoB" 
I believe.)

I've done a number of designs with them in the past couple years so if 
you have any questions I might be able to help.

On 9/29/2022 1:09 AM, Ricky wrote:
> On Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 12:44:48 AM UTC-4, bitrex wrote:
>> On 9/26/2022 4:09 PM, Ricky wrote:
>>> A customer wants me to redesign a board to eliminate the production bottlenecks. They also want all IP so they can make the boards themselves if my company is unable to. I'm fine with that, but I'd like to have some means of assurance they won't make boards without my royalty being respected.
>>>
>>> The board has an FPGA which contains the "magic", an analog path, and a digital path to the outside world. The digital path needs a 3.3V/5V interface. There are two opamps that serve as filters with gain. There is a need for several (3-4) LDOs.
>>>
>>> I've found a couple of chips from Greenpaks that could help here. One is a "Programmable Mixed-Signal Matrix" which could replace the opamps and provide a configurable gain using the programmable "rheostat". Another has four LDOs which would be useful and *might* be able to serve as the level shifter.
>>>
>>> I'm waiting to hear back from someone from Renesas, who can discuss this with me, or a disti FAE. There are a lot of questions about how to turn these into a custom part number to meet my needs.
>>>
>>> Anyone have experience with using these in production?
>>>
>> Please let me know if you're able to get anyone and how it goes, It
>> seems like the Renesas acquisition of Dialog's lineup has been sloppy as
>> hell
> 
> I thought someone here has used the Greenpak parts before.  Maybe it was another group.
> 

BTW I noticed you talked about level shifting, a number of GreenPak 
parts have dual supply pins and can intrinsically level shift between 
3.3 and 5V, you put your 3.3 I/O on one set of color-coded pins and the 
5V on the other set, easily done.

On Friday, September 30, 2022 at 9:34:16 AM UTC-4, bitrex wrote:
> On 9/29/2022 1:09 AM, Ricky wrote: 
> > On Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 12:44:48 AM UTC-4, bitrex wrote: 
> >> On 9/26/2022 4:09 PM, Ricky wrote: 
> >>> A customer wants me to redesign a board to eliminate the production bottlenecks. They also want all IP so they can make the boards themselves if my company is unable to. I'm fine with that, but I'd like to have some means of assurance they won't make boards without my royalty being respected. 
> >>> 
> >>> The board has an FPGA which contains the "magic", an analog path, and a digital path to the outside world. The digital path needs a 3.3V/5V interface. There are two opamps that serve as filters with gain. There is a need for several (3-4) LDOs. 
> >>> 
> >>> I've found a couple of chips from Greenpaks that could help here. One is a "Programmable Mixed-Signal Matrix" which could replace the opamps and provide a configurable gain using the programmable "rheostat". Another has four LDOs which would be useful and *might* be able to serve as the level shifter. 
> >>> 
> >>> I'm waiting to hear back from someone from Renesas, who can discuss this with me, or a disti FAE. There are a lot of questions about how to turn these into a custom part number to meet my needs. 
> >>> 
> >>> Anyone have experience with using these in production? 
> >>> 
> >> Please let me know if you're able to get anyone and how it goes, It 
> >> seems like the Renesas acquisition of Dialog's lineup has been sloppy as 
> >> hell 
> > 
> > I thought someone here has used the Greenpak parts before. Maybe it was another group. 
> >
> Nah it was me (though there another guy here who's used them also, "BoB" 
> I believe.) 
> 
> I've done a number of designs with them in the past couple years so if 
> you have any questions I might be able to help.

I'm a bit unclear about the programming.  When they have an I2C port, does that mean they can be programmed via that?  I'm looking at the SLG47004 and SLG46580.  Can the SLG46580 LDOs be set to power up to a given voltage?  I don't see a means of sequencing the power up of the LDO, other than perhaps through the I2C port.  They talk about writing to registers that reflect the non-volatile memory.  It's not clear if there are registers that are not loaded from the NVM.  

Do all of their parts have factory programmed NVM?  Do their parts let you configure everything from the I2C port, or do the parts need to be replaced when reprogrammed? 

Whew!  I started typing this around noon and have been slammed all afternoon!  

Looks like the respin is going to be rewarding.  They are talking about 18,000 units next year and more in the following two years!  I just need to design it with an FPGA that I can actually buy, not to mention the other parts on the board.  I hope the availability of the Greenpak units is not too bad. 

-- 

Rick C.

-+- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-+- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

On Friday, September 30, 2022 at 9:52:15 AM UTC-4, bitrex wrote:
> On 9/29/2022 1:09 AM, Ricky wrote:
> > On Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 12:44:48 AM UTC-4, bitrex wrote: 
> >> On 9/26/2022 4:09 PM, Ricky wrote: 
> >>> A customer wants me to redesign a board to eliminate the production bottlenecks. They also want all IP so they can make the boards themselves if my company is unable to. I'm fine with that, but I'd like to have some means of assurance they won't make boards without my royalty being respected. 
> >>> 
> >>> The board has an FPGA which contains the "magic", an analog path, and a digital path to the outside world. The digital path needs a 3.3V/5V interface. There are two opamps that serve as filters with gain. There is a need for several (3-4) LDOs. 
> >>> 
> >>> I've found a couple of chips from Greenpaks that could help here. One is a "Programmable Mixed-Signal Matrix" which could replace the opamps and provide a configurable gain using the programmable "rheostat". Another has four LDOs which would be useful and *might* be able to serve as the level shifter. 
> >>> 
> >>> I'm waiting to hear back from someone from Renesas, who can discuss this with me, or a disti FAE. There are a lot of questions about how to turn these into a custom part number to meet my needs. 
> >>> 
> >>> Anyone have experience with using these in production? 
> >>> 
> >> Please let me know if you're able to get anyone and how it goes, It 
> >> seems like the Renesas acquisition of Dialog's lineup has been sloppy as 
> >> hell 
> > 
> > I thought someone here has used the Greenpak parts before. Maybe it was another group. 
> >
> BTW I noticed you talked about level shifting, a number of GreenPak 
> parts have dual supply pins and can intrinsically level shift between 
> 3.3 and 5V, you put your 3.3 I/O on one set of color-coded pins and the 
> 5V on the other set, easily done.

I don't think the parts that are otherwise useful have the dual voltages.  I just need 3.3V I/O that are 5V tolerant.  I'm not finding that on the parts that otherwise look interesting. 

-- 

Rick C.

-++ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-++ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209