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Do you charge per-use royalties on your products?
No, our AES IP core products are sold on a royalty free basis.
What types of licence are available?
We offer single project and multiple-use (site) licences. These are industry standard license types which are supported by the Xilinx SignOnce licence template.
How do you define 'single project'?
A project is a design which is used to create an FPGA bitstream or ASIC maskwork. Since most designs evolve over time it can sometimes be difficult to determine when a new 'project' starts. As a general guide the licence is 'frozen' to a project at the point the design enters 'production' and products containing the design bitstream start to be sold or delivered outside the organisation where the development was done. This means that if an FPGA is used to prototype an ASIC or if the target FPGA is changed before the design enters production then only one licence is required. Once the design is in production then 'bug fix' changes to the bitstream would not require a new project licence. On the other hand if the design was changed radically so that it could be used in a completely different product then that would require an additional 'project' licence. There can be 'gray area' cases and we suggest that you discuss these with us. Prices for subsequent projects are discounted and there is the opportunity to move to an unlimited-use licence.
Will you match the price on a quote I obtained from one of your competitors?
Algotronix would welcome the opportunity to provide a counter-offer to a quotation from a competitor which undercuts our published prices. While we believe that publishing prices online is more convenient for customers and our prices are fair and competitive making pricing information visible can leave us vulnerable to tactical bidding from companies that do not publish their own pricing.
We would also welcome the opportunity to respond to competitor quotations which configure products in a different way from our standard products - for example Algotronix normally sell source code licences but the competitor may provide a lower price quote for a netlist licence.
Do you have free/discounted licences for academic projects?
Algotronix has strong connections to the academic community and can occasionally provide no-cost academic licences. To protect our intellectual property a licence agreement must be signed on behalf of the academic institution by a member of staff. Academic licences are provided at Algotronix sole discretion and we consider possible benefits to the company from the collaboration when deciding whether to provide an academic licence.
Do you have discounts for research or feasibility study projects?
This may be possible if the number of FPGAs to be configured is very small and if the customer is willing to forgo some of the design-in support normally provided with the products. Please contact us to discuss this further.
What are the terms and conditions of your licence agreement and can I review a copy?
We use the standard Xilinx 'SignOnce' licence agreement as a template. We are willing to consider modifications to this agreement on a case by case basis where customer's legal department have particular areas of concern. The agreement can be downloaded from this website.
We also have a simple one page 'NDA Style' agreement which is used for product evaluation. With larger customers where it is time consuming to have agreements approved by the legal department we will consider using the customer's own NDA when arranging evaluations.
Are there any differences between your licence agreement and the Xilinx 'Sign Once' template?
There are a very small number of changes. The most obvious is that some of our agreements allow for use on non-Xilinx FPGAs. Also there are minor changes to the choice of law section and the section on export control compliance. For customers in the European Union the Algotronix version of the agreement specifies that the law of Scotland applies (since Algotronix is located in Scotland), the choice of law for customers outside the EU is not changed. In the export control section the Algotronix agreement refers to UK export control regulations where the Xilinx agreement mentions US export control laws.
Is there a discount if I choose to use a core I have already purchased in a second project?
Yes, the a core licence for subsequent projects is half price. The discount is obtained using a coupon code in the automated checkout.
Can I upgrade from a single use to an unlimited use license by paying the difference in price?
The upgrade option is somewhat more costly than the difference between multi-use and single-use licences. This ensures that there is an incentive to buy a multi-use licence immediately rather than buying a single use licence and upgrading later. Please contact as if you would like to pursue this option and we will provide a quotation.
Can I buy netlist licences at a lower cost than the source code licences?
Netlist licences are not a standard product option for Algotronix since we believe that with encryption products it is important that customers have access to source code for security review purposes. However, we will provide a quotation for netlist-only versions of our cores on request. This may be useful to obtain a like-for-like compariosn to a price quotation from a competitor or if it is expected that it will be easier to obtain export approval for a netlist version of the product.
Why do you have different editions of your products for each FPGA vendor?
Vendor specific editions were created to comply with the product listing requirements of FPGA vendor partner programs. We also feel that there is additional value in the version of the product which can target all the FPGA vendors and therefore its price is somewhat higher.
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