The IPL Alliance was begun in 2007, with five founding members: AWR, Ciranova, SpringSoft, Silicon Navigator and Synopsys. Later, Mentor Graphics and Pulsic joined as supporting members. The newest members are: TSMC, Helic, JEDAT, Magma, Micro Magic and Virage Logic. Recently, LFoundry, TowerJazz and others joined the group.

The IPLI defines a PDK as a set of technologies to enable a complete analog and mixed-signal design flow. This consists of foundry-verified data files, such as schematic symbols, component descriptions, parameterized cells (p-cells) and callbacks.

The IPL Alliance released its much awaited ''open standard'' for interoperable process design kits (iPDKs) earlier this year. Called IPL1.0, the standard is supposed to reduce cycle times and costs. Based on the OpenAccess database, it is understood that the technology from the IPL Alliance will continue to evolve over the various process nodes.