Industry Expert Blogs
Semiconductor IP Becomes A Critical Element in ASIC Design-February 20, 2012 |
Clearly one of the market trends proving troublesome in the traditional ASIC value chain is the lack of silicon correlated custom IP. And make no mistake, semiconductor IP is a critical decision since it drives both chip level and system level technology differentiation.
Under the traditional ASIC model, vendors had their own IP, silicon-proven and tuned to their own fabs. This was a good thing as it assured a fast ramp to volume and more predictable yield curves. The downside was that IP catalogs were somewhat limited which constrained product differentiation. And now a staggering 49 fabs were shut down in 2009-11 as traditional ASIC vendors and IDMs continue to go fabless.