FYI in the HDL/ FPA & ASIC design space, IP is short for Intellectual Property and the best analogue from the software space would be a "software library". IP

FYI in the HDL/ FPA & ASIC design space, IP is short for Intellectual Property and the best analogue from the software space would be a "software library". IP are often black boxes akin to proprietary software libs. It's a dumb name but it has been in use for decades now.