Industry Expert Blogs

The semiconductor industry has changed hugely in the last 3 or 4 decades. Around 1980 some larger semiconductor companies were strongly vertically integrated, not only designed and manufactured their products, but even made their own processing equipment and in-house EDA tools. Today almost every semiconductor company uses 3rd party equipment for IC manufacturing and designs using 3rd party EDA tools and 3rd party IP. A key reason why the disaggregation of the semiconductor industry has happened is the use of open standards.

There is no universally agreed definition of an open standard but it is generally agreed that they are available on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis. In many cases, especially in SoC design, such standards are available on a royalty-free basis. Many open standards are owned by independent bodies such as the IEEE, OSI and IETF (internet engineering task force) rather than by companies. In such cases the further development of the standard is through an open process with widely-based participation.

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