"Hard" refers to components that are actually part of the ASICs and exist on the die. For example, a "hard DDR memory controller" means that there is a physical

"Hard" refers to components that are actually part of the ASICs and exist on the die. For example, a "hard DDR memory controller" means that there is a physical part of the die that implements the DDR spec. "Soft" refers to components that run on top of an FPGA. A "Soft CPU" is a CPU that runs on the FPGA, and is not part of the actual physical design.